Perfect World
by Anemonenfisch
Summary: When he wakes up, there would be no reason to be afraid anymore. They would make sure of that. (aka Shinichi collected a bunch of badass friends during his life, now they're going to hunt some bad guy's.) No Pairings
1. Ran

It was quiet without him, without the small footsteps on the floor or his voice welcoming her home. Instead of a lively voice, heavy silence welcomed her home as she stepped into the apartment. Wrong, everything was just so wrong.

She had cried that faithful night, had screamed insults, and had watched the blank face, played the small voice whispers, carefully constructed of years of hiding behind half truths and lies. Now it seemed foolish, like the stupidest thing she had ever done.

 _"I am Conan."_

Two years, two goddamn years he had always been there, right next to her, talked to her, dried her tears, listened to her worries, listened to Sonokos insults, it must have killed him inside. Now her mind was clear, she still wished she could be angry at him, because anger was so much easier to deal with than sadness. She's not sure where dad was, maybe with mum, she hopes he doesn't get drunk, the energy for dragging him back into their shared home isn't there at the moment, maybe will never come back.

A small, innocent looking book lies on the table. "Sherlock Holmes and the sign of four".

His presence is still thick, hiding behind every wall, in every room. Letting out a tired sign, Ran picks it up, pressing her fingers against the cover, like his did so many times, feeling the ghost of fingertips against her skin. Warm like they should be, not cold and lifeless, pale as the blankets. One moment later the illusion cracks, leaving her once again in the dark and empty apartment.

That night she wanted to pack everything into a single box, all the books, the scrapbooks, the pictures, the clothes, just everything, and throw it out, maybe even set it on fire. Just destroy it, her mind screamed. Destroy the liar, kick him out of your life, move on. Now she crawls back to them, press them against her heart and things about that time, when things still were easy.

There's an can of beer in the fridge. She weighs it in her hand, the other still gripping the worn book tightly. It was cold under her skin, bitting cold as even the can wants her to put it away.

The cap opens with a quiet hiss; smell of alcohol penetrates her nose. She never liked the smell, even after living around a father who almost always had the scent on him. It was something that brought bitter memories, about panicking because he forgot to walk home from a bar and dragging him into his bed. It had been easier with Conan around, giving the man some sense of responsibility. It had been easier with Shinichi around, even when they hated each others guts.

She swallows a big gulp, forcing down guilt and sadness, making her stomach rebel. She never was a drinker, even when most girls her age tried these sweet cocktails from time to time. She had seen what the poison could do to you.

Why didn't she notice anything? About his habits, so similar to Shinichi's that it was like a mirror. She should have notice something, anything. Maybe it then he would still be around, maybe then he would take the fucking can out of her hand and tell her that Shinichi-nii-chan would come back and was very, very sad to do all of this to her. Liar, goddamn pretender, wicked actor in some kind of twisted story where the happy ending is written in blood and sorrow.

Another gulp, everythings better than listen to the deadly silency haunting her. Everything, even when she fells the traitorous buzz in the back of her head.

She really was a lightweight.

Shinichi would take the can away from her, looking for evidences of what happened because he's oh so brilliant and nothing can escape his sharp eyes. The alcohol suddenly has a bitter aftertast.

Why is she thinking of him anyway? It wasn't like he did, for just one moment thought how she maybe Feeling, between fearing for his life when he was all safe right next to her and crying tears after him. Every tear had been a waste, he wasn't worth one of them!

Suddenly she's very angry, angrier than she ever was, if she remembers correctly through the light fog in her mind. "Go to hell" But there is only silence for her insult, silence and loneliness, the sound of the metal can hitting the kitchen counter abnormally loud, making her ears itch. As fast as the anger fogged her mind, he's gone. Blown away and the realization hits her. The same words!

 _"Go to hell"_

A sob, the stoic mask, the click of the door, carefully closed because he knows that her anger is justified, the call, the hospital, the monitors …

She's hanging over the toilet, puking everything out of her before she even realizes that her legs move. Hollow, that's the word she searches for all the time since being forced to listen to the annoying piep-piep, a false security to lure her into thinking that the body was still alive, just sleeping, for the first time.

Hollow, like every emotion went away with Shinichi that night.

Gasping for air she spits out another mouthful of bitter taste. They tried to kill him, back then and then they realized that they failed. He never told her, but oh, she was the daughter of a detective, and even when he was sometimes a really lousy one she still had her mother's genes and Shinichi. The pieces felt together, showing the whole picture with an honest brutality, leaving no space for excuses. They would have killed him on the spot, tried it even, and she saw enough crime scenes to know just a little bit how such minds work. Go after weak spots.

And then he gave up. Maybe it was her breaking him or the lies or the fact that living two lives always has consequences. Or it was just another plan, one that she just doesn't understand yet. It was comforting to think that everything was still in control, that somebody still had all strings in his hand. It was also incredible stupid.

Shinichi didn't plan this, didn't plan to land in the hospital and now she was all alone again.

Moving away with shacking legs, she let cold water run of her hands before splashing a bit too much on her face, leading to wet spots appearing on her T-shirt. It's refreshing, even when she still looks like a ghost in the mirror. Brushing a few bags behind her ear again Ran straights her posture.

She was not a weak girl; she could kick walls into crumbles when she wanted. Pressing her palms against the cold ceramic sink, Ran takes a deep breath before walking back into the kitchen. Her head still spins and she's forced to make small steps to not stumble too awkwardly around. Her alcohol tolerance is low, she thinks, feeling silly. Of course it was, hopefully it would forever stay so.

Beer is dripping over the edge of the counter in small drops, there was too less left, she drank more than realizing first. Ripping of a piece of paper Ran carefully cleans up and throws the dirty paper and can into the trash. It's oddly satisfying, it feels like she won something back with this simple gesture. She's one step closer to becoming Ran again, karate champion, childhood friend, a strong person, ready to stand up for herself and those she loves. One step further in the right direction. She's feeling more alive than the entire week.

The book is lying on the ground, upside down, open and she knows that a few pages maybe got dog ears from the careless behavior she showed toward the book in her anger. Shinichi would have scolded her. Picking it up she smothers the damaged pages. To be honest, she never truly understood the fascination her friend hold for these characters. Sure, Holmes was fun to read, but up to the point of obsession?

The pages where worn too, witnesses of love and endless hours of turning over. She can still picture him on the couch and in his room, as if he never went away. Could still recall every detail about him, his voice, his movements. It's like a ghost hunting the apartment, taunting her.

The letters are dancing a bit before her eyes, making it hard to concentrate on the words. It's English also, and even when she wasn't bad at this particularly subject, she needs more concentration than the previous owner. Why did she never wonder about the fact that Conan seemed to read these things with suspicious ease? Maybe she just wasn't aware of it back then.

The light in the living room helps a lot against spinning letters. Letting out a puff of air, she falls back on the couch and drags her knees against her chest until she's comfortable enough to pick up the reading again. It's kind of weird, sitting here and reading a book but it's the only connection she has at the moment, the only thing beside a steady breathing and annoying heart monitors. It's calming something inside her, something that had raged from the moment the click of the door confirmed Shinichis leave.

He had wanted to protect her, with all his power, had wanted to protect everybody from something that had been so much bigger than he was. And when he broke, he just had himself. Ran wants to break some bones for that.

Maybe it hurt, the lies, maybe there would have been a better way out of this whole mess. But she sees his reasons now, sees the fear he must have faced every day. They have changed since that evening in the Tropical Land. Maybe for the better. She grew up a lot in her opinion, maybe even this event supported her maturity.

It's time to change the roles, she things while reading through Watson's description of the new client.

"Let me protect you this time Shinichi."

* * *

Soooo, no shipping. Because I suck at romantic interactions. Also I am Kind of a sucker for ShinRan sibling realationship, blame Talent authors. I plan to write each chapter from a different persons view. So, any Special suggestions?

Sincerely Anemonenfisch


	2. Ai

She sips at the tea pot, the drink had been cold since a long time but she has more important issues on her mind than thinking about fixing her another drink. The pill still lays at the same place, still in the same small petri dish. Once there were two, she still doesn't remember why she made herself an antidote. There isn't anything Shiho had and Ai Haibara wants. Maybe she's going to stay like this the rest of her life.

Liar, a small voice whispers. There had been one thing that only Shiho would get. Maybe. She shoves the thoughts back into a dark corner, not willingly to think about anything at the moment.

The tea tastes terrible, she would prefer a hot cup of steaming coffee at the moment, but he also drank coffee. Always, as if it was a special ritual, just with her and the lab. Of course she knows that this place was the only one where he could act normal. The only place to drink coffee without people telling him with stern glares that he's way too young to establish such behaviour.

But it was a nice thought, thinking that they had something special – besides being shrunken to children by evil men.

The computer is shut down, nothing interrupts her blank stare at the wall. Agasa is somewhere in the house, maybe brewing her another pot, politely ignoring the untouched meals and drinks. He doesn't push her, but she wishes that he would. Just a bit. Just enough to give her a reason to break out of the spirals of thoughts, spinning around of What if's in endless circles.

What if she never created APTX 4169?

What if her sister never died?

What if she had been just a normal girl?

What if she would take the antidote and just jump in front of Gin?

"Stay low" he had said before running of to who knows where, trying to save the world again.

What if she had found him a little bit earlier?

She should have been faster. She's a genius after all. Just a minute, even a few seconds earlier arriving at the abandoned building, finding him with all the blood, god some much blood she knows people shouldn't lose so much but why didn't it stop, stop, stop …

Her knuckles a white and she forces them to relax their hold on the cup. This wouldn't break her. They killed her parents. They killed her sister. They killed Ku … He's not dead the small voice whispers again. Belonging to the part of her brain that balky ignores any logical facts and knowledge. It just continues to cling on the fact that his heart is still beating and that his brain is still the same brilliant mind as always.

She hates this part but she's still too weak to kill it completely. So she feeds the hope with information about his conditions. About his heartbeat, about his blood pressure, simply waiting for the day when it will die alongside with the body in the hospital. Alongside with Ai Haibara. Alongside with all she has left.

They tried to break her, with treats, with violence. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction. She wouldn't break. She was a rook. She was invincible.

Taking deep breaths she commands her hands to put the pot down, even when she would rather love the sound of it shattering to the ground.

She's a rook. She's emotionless. She's invincible.

She's a rook. She's emotionless. She's invincible.

She's a rook. She's emotionless. She's invincible.

She's … The door creaks open. She forgets to breath correctly, forgets to repeat the mantra. The girl shouldn't be here. She should be save at home not here, near the person who caused both of them so much pain.

She's a rook.

"Mouri-san how can I help you?"

She's emotionless.

Ran, wonderful, heart-warming Ran, looks around uncomfortable. It must be weird, walking into an underground lab, knowing that everything the owner will tell you are lies. Whit lies, carefully constructed to protect, but still lies.

"Ai, how are you?"

She's invincible.

"I'm fine." The lie slips over her lips without regrets. She doesn't remind her of Akemi because if she starts thinking about her again, she will break. She's a rook. She's invincible.

Ran gathers her breath, focusing on her with a way too intense look and she's ready. Ready for insults, ready for accuses. She doesn't think of Akemi or Kudo. Doesn't think of the evidence left behind and all the lose ends waiting to be tied together by skilled hands and deductions. They never will. Because the hands are tied to pale blankets. And hers are too bloody to even touch one evidence.

"Tell me the truth." The rook breaks, her ground shudders underneath her while her brain jumps between different answers. What are you talking about? What truth? It was me who almost killed him you know?

But Ran doesn't stop. She should, she really should because with each word she steps deeper into the swamp Kudo tried to keep her away from.

"Tell me about the people that tried to kill him." She's not emotionless because Ran deserves it. The truth, the cruel one, not the one without blood and corruption. And Kudo deserves it also. But she's afraid. Because she's weak. Because Ran will hate her then and she doesn't want to be hated, not by Ran, not by Shinichi. Emotions, annoying little things that make her shaking like a leaf on the inside.

"You're just so weak Shiho." His voice is cold like the gun he carries, sending shivers down her spine. She wants to throw the pot over her shoulder, right there where her imaginations had put him to whisper every word into her ear. The voice her nightmares are made of.

But he's not here, he's somewhere out, free without fear. It's just another injustice the universe decides to tolerate. Kudo always fought against these things, and look were it had got him. Leaving them alone in this dark world. Funny thing he left the biggest truth to a person that grew up with lies. See it as his last wish, she tells herself, shutting up the hope that wants to correct the fact that just maybe it wouldn't be his last wish. Hope always dies last.

She tastes copper while wetting her lips. "There's an organisation, we call them the Black Organisation." Stupid nickname, almost like it had been made up by a real kid. "Their dangerous. That night when you and Kudo when to the Tropical land he disturbed a deal. They tried to kill him with a poison named ATPX 4869." She avoids eye contact, preferring the white walls over blue irises. "It's a special one, leaving no trace in the victims body. It would look like a natural death."

Stopping herself she shallows hard. That had been the easy part, the one that left out her involvement. She could lie, she suddenly realises. Tell some white washed half truth about being just another victim. It's tempting because she's just a stupid girl that doesn't want to lose Ran.

"I made it. The poison." She speeds up a bit, not allowing her brain to catch up on the words she says out loud. It's better like this. "My sister was killed by the Organisation after trying to break me and her out of their clutches. I refused to continue working for them but when they tried to force me, I took the poison too. I knew that Shinichi Kudo wasn't dead and I didn't know where to go else so I went to his house. Agasa found me. Since then I'm trying to find a permanent antidote in order to make us normal again. I succeed a week ago and then …" It all went to hell.

She bits the please don't hate me back because she wouldn't beg for forgiveness she doesn't deserve. Her breath is rapid like she had run a mile. Telling the truth is tiring, suddenly she feels empty. Very, very empty.

But she's ready. For everything.

"How old are you?" "21" She's old, saying it out loud is even more horrifying than thinking about it. "And your real name?" "Shiho Miyano" The name is foreign to her tongue, bringing him over her lips makes her taste the remains of what she buried with it long ago. Her sister, her past, her sins.

There are warm hands around hers suddenly. She almost falls over, jerking away from the touch by instinct. It feels right, but it's wrong. Her own eyes are captured by Ran's. Blue, a really brilliant blue with a soft edge. It's so similar that she wants to look away. Why are they throwing around with their forgiveness like it's a cheap present?

"Thanks for telling me." Ran cocks her head and smiles. Ai feels tear gathering in her eyes. She will not cry. She will not. But she broke too many of her own rules, one wouldn't make a different. And so she lets the tears slip, down her cheeks and on their entwined hands. Because Ran makes her feel that it's okay to not be strong at the moment.

Time passes; maybe just a few minutes or hours, she doesn't know nor really care. There's this special emptiness you feel, the numbing feeling after crying, almost like your body reveals all the corners where the tears where stored.

Ran is the first to break the silence again. "They're still out there, aren't they?" Ai wants to tell her that they aren't, that there's still justice in this world, but she's too tired to come up with a believable lie. So she nods.

Grim determination enters blue eyes. "Ai" she's glade that she doesn't call her by her real name. Because Ai is stronger. Because Ai has friends. Because Ai has something to fight for.

"How much did Shinichi found out?" Maybe she would be afraid of the fire burning in Ran's eyes, but she isn't because she knows that they're only mirroring her own.

"Enough" she tells her while giving her hands a squeeze. "Enough to tear them down."

There's a cold smile on Ran's lips which shouldn't be there. It's just such an opposite to the normally sweet girl. But Ai doesn't care. Because they deserved it, everything that will come.

"I think we're going to have our hands full until the idiot decides to wake up." Because he will. "Yeah, we should start." After all, it's time to change the roles for once.

* * *

Whoa, never thought that so many people would actually like this story! Thanks to all of you. Hopefully I didn't made Ai too Ooc. (I'm currently planning the next chapter, wait for the surprise!)

Sincerely Anemonenfisch


	3. Kaito

It had been terrifying easy to get here. But then again, international thief, he had skills they certainly hadn't.

They couldn't be as good as he is, they just couldn't. There must be some unknown balance somewhere in the universe to let the good guys win from time to time too.

Sometimes he catches himself thinking that all of this would be just another illusion from their enemies, another blurred reality. He just needs to find the exit, that moment that will bring him back into the real world. Just needs to find that little thing that doesn't fit into the complete picture to make it shatter like a card house.

He lost people before. He knows that people die. His father did, innocently, leaving behind a devastated family. Jack Connery did, he still had nightmares from hands that were slipping through his and the crying voice of a small boy. He isn't unfamiliar to death.

But this isn't right. It couldn't. Shinichi Kudo could not lie in a hospital bed, more dead than alive. This is the thing that will shatter the illusion. The small detail that doesn't fit.

Kaito waited for it, for the moment when he would be back at some rooftop with Spider facing him and his detective somewhere alive and ready to kick some evil guy's ass. He waited half an hour for his brain to klick.

They talked about this, he thinks while twisting the white sheets in one hand. They talked about making it. Talked about getting their lives back.

Shinichi doesn't even know his name yet. Present, always present never past, because Shinichi was there, alive, because his heart still beats. So, present never past.

"They're avoiding me, I think I'm not in the best mood for the past days." He is tired, too tired to put on a cheerful mask for anyone. Let them think what they want, they know nothing. Shinichi understands, maybe not the part about stealing but defiantly the part of lying to your loved ones for protection. See where it got him.

This could have been him. Maybe should even be him. He had the higher potential anyway, running around in a dead person alibi. Why it had been Shinichi?

"I think there's something coming Tantei-kun, something big."

The underworld is awfully quiet at the moment, silence before the storm. He's not sure if he will survive the endgame. Life was fragile, reality catches up quiet painfully with him. It almost seems like Shinichi always brought him back to the ground when he was about to lose it. The clock tower incident, he had become quiet careless at that point. Looking back maybe it had been the right thing of Lady Luck to teach him a lesson through a certain detective.

He's not sure if Shinichi hears him, but talking is good. It makes it easier for him. Jii is worried, even when he doesn't say anything when he comes back from his daily trip to the hospital. Move on, his eyes say, you will manage it.

He's glade that the old man doesn't voice his opinion, he doesn't want to argue with him about this. Maybe it would be the better, healthier, easier way to cope with all this. But then again, when does he take the easier way? Also he's not sure if the argument would be pretty, lately he feels more like screaming at all and everyone more than having a reasonable discussion over his behavior.

Always keep your poker face, his dad told him. It had been his mantra, his philosophy but now, his head was empty. Execpt for the endless what if's?

What if he told Shinichi his name?

They both played a game with fire, now one got burned.

Why didn't he manage to avoid it? He was good at tricking dead, why not this time?

He puts the roses into the vase on the night desk. Yellow, friendship. He's thankful that Mouri-san doesn't throw them away. He almost suspects the police to turn up one day but then again, they all had their hands full at the moment.

The hand of his wristwatch moves dangerous close to six, announcing the arrive of the brown haired girl. He knows the visiting hours, knows when which person enters, knows when which doctor checks in, he knows it all like the back of his hand. Call him paranoid, it saved his skin quiet a few times.

"Guess it's time for my goodbye, dear detective." No response, just monotone breathing and the annoying noise from the machines.

He wants them to burn in hell for that. Wants them to choke on their own darkness. Wants them to stop hurting people he likes.

"There's a heist next week" too early a voice whispers, the wounds are still too fresh "hopefully it's Pandora" I don't know how long I'm able to take it, how long I'm able to keep my hands clean.

There's a soft click coming from the door and he should put on the damn basketball cap, no masks he swore to himself at the one day, no more lies, and make an exit through the window but there's a sudden calm inside him. He got caught.

"Seems like it wouldn't be you who will put me behind bars, what a shame" The escape was open, one jump and he would be out of reach but he doesn't want to. It's over.

"KID?" The voice is soft and Kaito wants to throw his head back and laugh. Mouri-san. Too early. Of course. The universe wouldn't even give him the chance to get arrested voluntarily.

"Mouri-san, what a surprise." The clock shows that there would be still 5 minutes until her regular visit, like it would be 2 hours before the redhead would visit and like 5 was his call. They avoid each other. 5, 6, 8. Like a clockwork, carefully constructed to avoid any contact.

"Can we talk?" It's a question, she leaves an option for a no. Quiet a stupid move to make in front of a thief. Thief's always say no.

"Sure why not?" But he isn't the glorious KID at the moment. He's a highschool student who's about to lose a friend.

For the first time he turns around to face the girl. Their faces mirror each other. Bags under the eyes, worry written all over their skin. They're the same at the moment, not a thief and a normal girl, just two persons who are about to lose someone.

"We want to take them down." Her eyes are different, they're burning with something he just couldn't put his finger on. It hasn't been there the last time he saw her. Dead, hollow, just like his own, back then when he watched from a safe distance as he sat by the detectives' side for the first time.

The chuckle escapes him before he can stop it. It's bitter and sharp, sounding horrifying loud in the room. He doesn't remember his laugh to be bitter. "You don't know anything." They will go over dead body's, no matter what age.

He expects her to recoil, to get away from him. She should, would be better for all of them. She should leave him alone, he doesn't need anyone. Just another heist, another diamond, one day he would find it, and maybe then …

His hands are shaking and he forces them to still with grim determination. Mouri's still there. Kaito can't decide if it's extremely brave or foolish. Maybe a mix, they're all a bit messed up after all.

"I know what they're able to do! But I'm not going to sit here and drink tea while they're out there." She interrupts herself, taking a few deep breaths and then staring at him with these unnerving eyes. "We need you KID, please help us." The anger is gone, nothing left than a honest ask for help. His chest feels tight all sudden.

Help. They also talked about this, about teaming up. The déjà-vu hits him unprepared.

Keep calm, he tells himself while trying to suppress all the emotions swirling around in his head. Always keep your poker face.

"I wanted to tell him my real name you know?" He tells her the first thing that popes up in his mind just to distract her a bit longer, until he claimed back control over his thoughts. Luckily he manages to bit back the I miss him just in time.

Mouri waits, patiently with a soft smile on her lips. It remembers him of Aoko, before KID, before the lies, before the distance grow between them he isn't sure will disappear ever again. Somebody's sobering, in a high, pitiful whine.

It's him he realizes when strong arms encircle him, pulling his face into a surprisingly strong hug. It's okay a small voice whispers or maybe it's Mouri-san's because his head spins and he can't concentrate at more than the safety he suddenly feels. And so he cries, letting the tears wash away all the pain and fear.

It's a long time until one of them speaks and to his surprise it's Kaito himself, muffling the "yes" into blue fabric.

He doesn't really thinks about what a picture he certainly makes with red eyes and dry tears on his cheeks when he offers her a yellow rose, the first trick he done since that faithful night. It's feels like taking something back from them, like the first step to victory.

"Friendship" she smiles, closing her hands protectively around the stalk and maybe the world isn't such a dark place and maybe they would manage it.

"Nice to meet you Mouri Ran, my name is Kaito Kuroba." Kaito offers her a hand and when they shake hands, it's a firm shake nothing weak or soft left behind.

"The pleasure is all mine, Kaito-kun, please call me Ran. Let's make this world a better place until Shinichi wakes up." Her smirk is sharp and dangerous and there's a certain familiarity that sends shivers down his spine. "What's about starting with a few snipers?"

When Tantei-kun decides to wake up the world would be free of red glowing diamonds and silver haired snipers. Kaito would make sure of that.

* * *

Because you can't win a war against a black organization without an international thief. It's a law. Somewhere.

Thank's a lot for all the wonderful feedback. I'm speechless. To be honest I didn't expect it. You're the best. Hopefully Kaito isn't to Ooc, dragging your favorite Characters through emotional hell is fun and hard work. Also, let's just say, Ran knew that Kaito was visiting, you know leaving roses all over the place and so on. She decides to meet him and recrute him for the Revenge Squad.

Sincerely Anemonenfisch


	4. Heiji

Heiji knows his reputation. He knew that most people were under the impression that he was rude and maybe a bit too hot headed. But he could be also very calm if the situation required it.

And now he is calm. Calm enough for a headache to rise.

Rubbing slowly his tempers, he appreciates the dull wall of his hotel room maybe a bit too intense. He knows that he's pretending that this wall is the most beautiful white wall in the whole world just to keep his eyes focused and his mind at one point.

But it's pointless, it's seems like the wall starts to laugh at him. About his own incompetence, about the fact, that he had been too late. And so god damn pathetic to not even be able to face the only person in the world that he mostly wanted him to.

Ran didn't called him. Not one time. It shouldn't hurt that much, she certainly was hurt and confused but it hurt somewhere deep down in his guts, adding just another point to the list where he tries to justifies why the hell he'd been for three days in Tokyo without seeing her.

The list is short. Too short for his conscience to be silent.

But the list that keeps him from going to the hospital as so damn short that he doesn't sleep without seeing her burning behind his closed eyes. It's fear. The whole list consists about fear. Because now, now he could still pretend that this all was just a hell of a nightmare, that Shinichi or Conan would call him any minute, telling him about cases, about Ran, about his friends. He in return doesn't dare to call the number just to break the illusion himself. Too high were the risks of a foreign voice, or worse, the utter silence that would occur if the telephone was in that place were evidences went after the crime scene. After murders.

The information he could pry out of the news and his dear father were poor.

Famous detective shot, rumors, headlines, the police didn't make a statement, it was frustrating to no end.

Ran must have been furious, sad, torn apart; Heiji isn't really sure how he would feel in such a situation. He just remembers Conan talking about how he had been afraid of her reaction.

Maybe it's easier for her now, knowing that Shinichi really had been at her side the whole time. Or it would make it all worse.

He pulls his cap from his head and starts spinning it around in on hand. A nervous habit, something he just couldn't get ride of. He certainly doesn't think about all the times he lend it to someone else. He doesn't, he doesn't, he doesn't.

The cap lands on the floor and Heiji sees no point in picking it up again. Everything just seems pointless these days. His phone vibrates and a small, hopefull spark fills him just to get whisked away by the phoners ID.

Kazuha.

As much as he loves and admires her, at the moment he needs to be alone. It's rather cruel, just a small moment he remembers Ran clenching to a phone with a devastated expression in her eyes before canceling the call. She has every right to be furious at him when he returns, he didn't told her about his sudden departure in the slightest way, but this was something that he must sorts out. Without her.

And he would sort it out, his head is full of ideas spinning around in endless circles even when he knows that it's pointless. He couldn't do anything against them.

They are brutal, Conan never wasted a minute to put pressure on exactly this point. They don't have morals, they wouldn't think twice about shooting a teenager. They didn't think about it last time.

It's a bitter realization, so bitter that it twists his guts more than once just thinking a bit about them and how he would enjoy crushing them with his bare hands.

The thoughts are dark sometimes, so dark that he's disgusted. The cases, too much fantasy. But sometimes, when the watch on the night desk shows a time when no normal being is awake anymore, he finds himself thinking that maybe, just maybe, deserved it all. That they doesn't even deserved hell.

Shinichi always had higher morals as him. It's as funny as it's horrifying when he thinks about the times when the detective saved criminals. Even in this child form where they could easily overpower him without too much energy.

He stops himself before his mind could drift in directions of the thousand what if's?

Shinichi always thought that every live was worth saving it.

His phone vibrates again, automatically his finger hovers of the cancel button before he realizes, that it isn't Kazuha who's calling.

Ran Mouri.

It takes him way too long to be proud of to decide, that maybe it's time for him being a best friend. Even when the idea of talking to a girl and telling her one of his best kept secrets with his next breath freaks him out.

"Hattori, I'm glade that could reach you." Her voice's normal and for a horrifying moment he thinks about the fact that maybe she's not as affected as he is. Or that she just threw all her feelings overboard. It paints a cruel and cold picture of the usually sweet girl. Heiji shallows the forming limp in his throat.

"Ran, we need to talk." He doesn't know where to start, but he doesn't have time to get the secrets finally out of the dark before Ran speaks again.

"I know." And after a second. "Everything. Heiji I know everything."

The burden doesn't lift itself from his shoulders like all the novels love to describe a exposing of a heavy secret but he can feel that it's easier to shallow and breath after this fatale sentence.

"I'm sorry Ran." It's not enough, not enough for everything that happened and it rankles Heiji that the sentence sounds hallow over the phone.

"I'm also sorry, for not calling you. The last week had been" horrifying, terrible, the worst week in his whole life "eventful." She doesn't say the words that he knows are on the tip of her tongue. And he's glade for it.

"I'm in Tokyo" suddenly he couldn't wait to see her, to talk to her, to finally, finally telling her the truth about all the lies. Maybe she would hate the detective less after it. He feels a tickling in his hands and legs, too much energy left from sitting around and drowning in misery. It wants to be unleashed. He would be out of the door in a second if she …

"Heiji, how much do you know about them?" Them, so she really knows everything. Even simply thinking about them make him sick again.

"Not much." Not as much as he should maybe do, not as much that he could have protected his friend.

"What about kicking them in the ass." The frace is unexpected from Ran. The darkness dripping from it should have worried him. But he's done worrying about things and not acting at all. And even when they're borderline to something dark, it would be worth it.

"I'm there in 20 minutes."

Shinichi always considered every live worth a fight. Maybe they could start making him realize that he is worth the same fight.

"That great, I have some really interesting people who will help us."

* * *

So, Heiji. Nothing to add. Please leave a Review.

Sincerely Anemonenfisch


	5. Takagi

Takagi never liked hospitals. It maybe because hospitals were always associated with hurt and pain. They have uncomfortable chairs and the air had a tang of densification. At the moment one of these chairs digs painfully in his back. It's one of these plastic things where you are always afraid that they will break under your weight.

He throws a glance in the direction of the hospital door before flipping the notebook open and scanning the information written down on the page. It's not much, which persons came to visit in his shift, how long and all the questions that are left unanswered at the moment.

Normally he wouldn't be a fan of operator security. It isn't one of his favourite activities, mostly you argue with persons about their security.

He doesn't enjoy it this time either. To be exactly, it's fare worse than anything he experienced before. They are about to lose one of them. He's about to lose someone. And there's a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that tells him that this isn't the whole picture. That something is overseen, he just can't put his finger on it.

Megure is outraged. Something that Takagi never seen before. He worked a long time for the Tokyo Police Department and had seen his boss in different moods. Angry, really angry was new for him. Especially if fear was mixed in. Only thanks to the fact that there's new investigations ongoing Megure isn't sitting on this spot. Something on a higher level, Takagi really doesn't want to know which news caused his boss to throw his cup against a wall.

He draws a circle around the letters which are forming the name of his charge. Shinichi. Brilliant guy with intelligence. He almost expected him to one day walk beside him in a real uniform.

And a child. Children are always the worst. He adjusts his grip on the pen to pretend it from snapping in half. Conan should be there, maybe he would find something they didn't. Of course he would. He always did.

Tracing the circle with the tip of the pen, Takagi let's out a deep breath. It's the first time in days that he can think without interruptions. He glances at his watch. It's afternoon, he skipped lunch again.

He misses Conan, the small child running between their legs and pointing out things like they were the most obliviously thing in the world. They could really need him at the moment. But he disappeared, vanished like smoke. The moment Shinichi Kudo appeared, the boy disappeared. Perfect timing, something that bugs him even more than the fact that Conan didn't say goodbye to him.

The Detective Boys were worried, hearing nothing from their friend, even when he told them that he would write them. Parents, he was with his parents. Takagi cures the fact that he had no idea who they were. Conan belonged to Mouri, even when every child had a family somewhere, Conan always seemed to belong to the detective and his daughter. Or to the police department. Or to the Detective Boys. There was something strange in thinking that Conan had other people beside them.

Shinichis Parents were busy, somewhere in the world. For the fact that they are both rather famous, it was hard to track them down. They doesn't know yet. Parents should be with their children in such a situation. So he's there instead. Ran's here. The red hair girl is here.

Shinichi belongs more to them than he does to his parents.

He draws a line between the two names. Shinichi and Conan. They're similar, not only in appearance. Maybe his fantasy takes revenge for lack of sleep and for neglecting his basic needs.

But he has nothing to do so he let's his mind work. He could rip it out later anyway.

So, Shinichi disappeared like two years ago. One day to the other. But Mouri said he called sometimes and also he appeared from time to time. So they weren't worried. Maybe they should have been. Maybe then, this could have been prevented.

He also remembers that Conan appeared at that time. Small kid seemed to attract dead bodies. Another similarity even when he doesn't know if bad luck could really be count as a character trait or something all detectives seemed to share.

There's defiantly some patter in this. Conan even told him that he wasn't the person who he pretended to be. That time in the elevator when he thought that these were the last moments of his live.

It's a crazy idea. The two of them, being the same. Takagi's fingers are hovering above the paper edge, ready to rip it out and throw it in the trash.

He should maybe eat something and sleep a few hours, maybe talk to Sato. Involuntarily he smiles a bit.

"You look happy Takagi, what are you thinking about?" He nearly falls from the chair, plastic still digging painfully in his back when he realises that it's not a psychotic person who wants to finish what they started, instead Sato, brilliant, beautiful, genius Sato holds a cup with coffee in front of her. "Sato …" he splutters unintelligent. "Hey" she presses the cup a bit harder against her chest. "I thought that I could surprise you." Her smiles tugs at the edges of her lips but not enough to really count. His eyes spots the cup again, maybe some bitter stuff from one of these automates.

"May I?" He takes a deep gulp and waits for the caffeine to kick in while starring at the hospital door. "I never met him really." "Yeah, he …" disappeared, went on a chase, somehow become … He doesn't even know what to say. There's a heavy silence between them, like it always seems to hover over the whole Department since that call.

Sato breaks it again, closing her eyes and letting her head fall backward against the back of the chair. Takagi can see his own tiredness in her posture. "I mean, I would have loved to meet him. After all, it seems like he had been a lot like Conan." Takagi smiles a bit while nipping against at the liquid. It's good, not some cheap stuff, he feels the warm feeling spreading in his chest. Sato bought coffee, for him.

"Yeah, always one step ahead from us." They adapted to him, almost in the same way they did with Conan. Just accepting that he would be there, jumping between their legs, asking at the first look silly questions, and solving the case in the end.

"I know, maybe it sounds crazy, but they are so similare, it almost seems like they are one and the same." Takagi nearly chokes on his coffee. Immediately Sato sighs. "Like I said, crazy. Maybe I'm just missing Conan-kun too much."

Silently he offers her his notebook. Her eyes become sharp, always are like this when she's deducting something. "How should that be possible?" It's a question for both of them because they both came to the same impossible answer. But suddenly Takagi wants to know, maybe it's the fact that he's not the only one, maybe it's the fact that he just wants the truth or the fact that there's something behind the closed doors of Megure's office that nags at this mind.

"I have an idea." He throws the plastic cup into the trash can, taking a deep breath before opening the door. There's something weird about seeing a person you know like this. Something sad and something that makes you angry at the whole world. They took one of them, like it was nothing. Gritting his teethes, he takes a step forward.

There's only one truth.

He doesn't look backward if Sato is there, but she is there, waiting for whatever he's about to do.

"Sorry" It's a apology for a lot of things. For not trying to find out more. For failing.

He softly brushes the blanket away, trying not to do anything that could hurt the kid. He can't be more hurt, a voice tells him. Look at him.

Two cracked rips, broken bones, bullets. All of this sounds more like an autopsy report. He shallows the thought of Shinichi as corpse down before there could be a picture to the idea. He tugs the shirt upward, at the side of his stomach where he knows Conan should have a scare. Got shot during an excursion with his friends. Something about a treasure and robbers. "Trouble magnet" he whispers softly while brushing his fingers above the scare tissue.

This is Conan. The truth hits him like a train. He's clenching his fists around the metal bed frame. Sato's looking above his shoulder. "Oh God" she whispers.

He's not sure if this is better, to know that they took both of them and that Conan isn't somewhere safe. "Who would do that?"

"An organization, we call them the Black Organization." Mouri-san stands in the door frame, arms crossed, not leaving the face of her friend. There are bandages around his cheeks; Takagi doesn't want to know where else they are.

"Why would anyone do something like this?" Sato always had been the braver of them, stepping in front of Mouri-san. He knows this look in her eyes, it's the same she has when there's a rather cold murder in front of her.

"Long history." A voice says behind them. A boy, almost the same age as Shinichi, there's a rather weird similarity between them. "But you know, what's about lunch?"

Takagi's stomach painfully reminds him that it had been too long that he last eat something. Mouri-san smiles, it's not entirely carefree or happy but it's a try. "Yeah" he says while softly taking Sato's hand. She's shaking, on the inside because she's still afraid of showing something to the outside. He maybe never would make it this far without Conan. Maybe would never be here today if not for Shinichi.

He feels Sato hand squeezing back. This would be interesting, maybe even dangerous. But they weren't alone.

Softly closing the door behind him he glances one last time at the boy. Don't worry, he wants to whisper because he somewhere read that people in coma could hear everything around them. We got you. So don't worry.

* * *

So, yep I totally ship Takagi with Sato. So a tinny, tinny bit of romance. But that's it. And also just because they are so adorable together.

Reviews?

Sincerely Anemonenfisch


	6. Akako

Akako dreams about a forest. A beautiful forest with high trees and soft moose. She knows that she's dreaming, it's almost like playing the same game over and over again. Her feet are naked, the soft ground underneath her gives up a bit at every step she takes and so she walks. Walks to a point that seems to attract her even from this distance. It calls her name in a soft whisper among the wind that blows gently around her.

Akako isn't afraid, getting visions is a part of her life since she could think and dream. Some are crueller than others, some scream murder and blood at her but this one is peaceful, so she isn't afraid of what's coming. Maybe for once its going to be a quite good one. Maybe about a certain magician.

There is a clearance opening before her and then it happens.

Suddenly the sun's away and the leaves are dropping to the ground, dead and crumbled into dust when her feet touch them. There are dark clouds in the sky and the wind howls angrily. She wants to turn around and hide inside the woods but when she turns around, the trees are nothing more than bleached, dead skeletons, stretching their branches out at her like they want to grab her.

The scream is caught in her throat and she needs to remind herself that this is just a dream, just a stupid little dream, nothing that can hurt her. It's going to be okay, soon she will wake up in her own bed inside her mansion. Everything's going to be okay.

Still she can't stop herself from stumbling back a few steps, away, just away from these awful things with their fingers stretching out to reach her.

Her hearth beats in her chest, again and again painfully against her ribs, almost like it tries to break out and run away on its own. She isn't afraid; maybe she had been in the past when she still couldn't understand the full range of her power but not today. She's Akako Kazumi, greatest black witch in Tokyo. She is not afraid of this. Not this time.

But something isn't right this time. She had visions before, terrifying visions of her colleges, her friends she sometimes dare to call them but witches don't have friends just admires and enemies, dying and looking at her through dead, glassy eyes. About doves dropping from the sky, about spiders burying their poison fangs in her body. She went through this before. But something is different.

There's this bone chilling fear inside her. Something that she never experienced before, not even in her youngest years. It's a primal, ancestral feeling. Telling her to run, to get away from here, to never, ever come or watch back. Her hands presses on her head, her brain commands her to hide, to seek shelter to just not be here anymore. The sky is painted in an angry black and she can hear lightning, sees as the light tears the darkness apart. It has to stop, this all just has to stop or else …

Suddenly it's quiet. Awfully quiet, as if the whole place just died after it's final breath, as if all of this had just been the death battle. The silence is even more chilling than the storm.

Akako doesn't move, doesn't dare to, even holds her breath, afraid that the smallest movement could cause immense damage to this small, fragile world. Something drops on her head. And then again. And again.

Her fingers curls around something soft and as she pulls the foreign object from the long hair, she sees that it's a black feather. It's beautiful, a deep, shimmery black.

Krak-krak. There is something croaking. There's still something left here, something is still alive and she wasn't all alone. She nearly tumbles above her own feet, cursing herself stupid and totally unworthy as a witch as she follows the sound. The clearance suddenly appears to be far more wider than in the beginning, she doesn't seem to move at all, but still the sound draws nearer and nearer.

The she sees it. A beautiful raven slowly approaching her, flying circles above her head. She can't stop a little, happy sound from escaping her mouth. It's something relieving about his seemingly endless circles.

Round after round, almost as if he watches over her and suddenly Akako feels like a little child again, running and jumping over grass and rooks. Not that she cared because this was just a dream, a silly fantasy and still there was a sense of recognition. She knew his name, something about him was quite familiar. But she just couldn't put her finger on it, almost as if …

Neither of them saw the claws before they buried themselves in the birds side. It's a crow, an ugly, huge thing with cruel eyes and a razor sharp spout. There's a drop of blood on her dress and then she hears it, the high-pitched noise, almost sounding like a choked sob. She wants to call her magic, to tear this beast apart until there's not a single bone left but the familiar sense of power and the burning feeling of magic pulsing through her veins just won't appear. And so she runs, runs as fast as she can manage, stumbling over rooks, bumping her toes against wood and grass. But she can't reach them. Can't put an end to the never-ending sound of tearing flesh.

Finally she hits the ground but her nerves are too numb to register any pain. I need to reach them, I need to put an end to it, her mind is a spiral of rapid thoughts, of fear and pain and then she hears it.

It starts with a low chuckle, barely reaching her roaring ears. It's low, cold, almost like ice cracking. It gets louder and louder until it's the only sound that fills her thoughts. A loud, insane laughter.

It's the crow that laughs, a human laugh even when she can't believe that any human being could laugh that cold. The laugh screams murder, danger, but she can't take her eyes from the scene before her. Can't take her eyes from these small black dots that stared at her. It's still alive, pinned under the claws of the other bird, its chest lifting too rapidly. "I'm sorry." She chokes out, useless on the ground. She wants to save it, wants so desperately to reach out and protect it with her bare hands.

The spout gleams above the way too thin and breakable body. Suddenly it's a knife, a gun, a small red pill and it aims at the raven's heart. Akako knows that she should close her eyes, she can and often she must in order to keep her sanity but not this time. This time she wants to see it, this time she wants fight until the very end. One last time it gleams, silver, a cold, death colour, before it buries itself in black feathers. And Akako screams.

She still screams when she sits upright in her bed, cold sweat on her forehead, the pillow somewhere across the room and she doesn't stop shivering when her servant burst into the room, pulling her into a supporting hug. Something's going to happen. Something really, really bad.

#*#*#*#*#*

She isn't quiet herself the next day, starring of into the distance and trying to sort out her thoughts. For once she didn't told Koruba about her vision just to creep him out, and because Kuroba is a dove, always a shiny little dove, for once she keeps it all to herself, the picture of these final moments.

She doesn't realise that maybe, just maybe she should have told someone until the headlines appear, until Kuroba walks inside the classroom one day without looking up or smiling. She doesn't take her eyes of the picture for a solid hour when she reads it all by herself.

Detective hurt. Police won't take a statement.

On the front page is her little raven.

She tells herself that they are just rumours, just catchy articles but she burns the paper with her magic anyway. Just to fell the power. Just to destroy something.

#*#*#*#*#*

She doesn't dream about the raven quiet a time, about a week or so, not that she was counting or anything. She doesn't dream at all, not a single time. It almost seems like the future itself hold its breath.

Instead she watches Kuroba, watches him crumble like he never did before, not even under her spell, not even under Spider, not even when he was shot. There's an absent look in his eyes, a haunted shadow in his actions. And she feels guilty, oh so guilty.

#*#*#*#*#*

She dreams about the forest again, about the dead trees, about the storm, about the dying raven in the grass. Just this time they are alone and she gathers him up in her hands, softly placing him in her lap not caring if she dirties herself or not and watches him fight for every breath. He's strong, so strong and she slowly draws circle in his feathers to calm him down, to make sure that she will protect him.

When there's a hand on her shoulder, she almost whirls around with the expectation of meeting the cold silver again and her hand ready to throw the worst spell on him that she could imagine, but instead she meets soft eyes.

It's a girl, quite similar to Nakamori but still so different. Her eyes seem to be older, wiser, as if they were forced to grow up rather fast. Normally such eyes hid a cold gleam inside them, a well hidden anger at the world but they were just a soft, endless blue. She's not the only one, a boy, Kuroba she realises with a twitch in her heart because she should have said something and didn't, a guy with dark skin, a small girl with scarlet hair, a man holding the hand of a women and oh so many who were outlined with a soft glowing, not quiet visible to her but still there.

"Thanks for saving him." The girl says, putting a hand right over her own that shield the raven, Shinichi Kudo, she now knows who this is, who they killed. She laughs a bitter, broken sound because oh, she's such a fool. "I didn't saved him." She half expected the girl to slap her but she just smiles a bit more broken. "We all didn't."

There's the sound again, Akako can feel the chills running down her spine and automatically she ducks her head, cursing herself to be so weak and pathetic.

She can see the shadow on the grass, circling in slow circles above them. It's waiting for its prey to come out again, she never felt so disgusted by anything before.

The girl doesn't spare a glance at the shadow, lips pressed into a thin, hard line. Such a difference to the softness. It's fascinating, scary and Akako relaxes a bit more. It's okay, she isn't alone anymore.

"We didn't saved him before, doesn't mean we will let them get him again."

Akako wakes up with the words still ringing in her ears. She allows herself to simply lay there, a simple act of relief, even when it's a weak thing. She isn't weak after all, she's a damn witch.

She kicks her legs out of bed, walking with head held high straight to her desk and tearing out a sheet. Subaru Okiya. A simple name, everything she could get from this dream. She doesn't know who he is, what he does or how he is involved in all of this. But Kuroba probably does. If not, she would rather tear the whole city down than ignoring this hint.

After all she's a witch. And a damn powerful one.

"Just wait little raven, let us do the work for once."

* * *

So, maybe I'm quite a fan of Akako, I mean, Magic just got real! Also, the first part actually plays before Ran's chapter, I thought it would be quite cool if Akako would have one of her visions. And yes, Ran just recruited her through a dream, what can I say, the Girl got carisma! (Also I somehow needed someone to Point out Okiya, if you don't know why Spoiler warning for the next chapter)

Reviews?

Sincerely Anemonenfisch

6.12.2016 thanks to FinalXFantasy19 for pointing out that I first made Akako loses all her powers through her tears. I knd of miss that fact. Thanks!


	7. Akai

Spoier. Like really. If you don't know anything about Subaru Okiya, do. not. read. this. at. all. Go watch Detective Conan and come back later. This will contain Spoilers. You were warned.

Enjoy!

* * *

Akai lets out a soft sigh, pulling the voice changer a bit away from his throat. He will never get used to that thing, it always rubs against his skin. But after all, he still needs to wear it. Even when it's tiring from time to time. Sometimes he wishes that he would never volunteered for this undercover job in the beginning. He dismisses the thought always after a second.

If he starts thinking like that it's just a question of time until there's a bullet between his eyes. Still, the path had been bloody. He still has nightmares about Scotch's face, about Akemi's face, about the way Gin smiled every single time before he pulled the trigger. He doesn't think of himself as soft or anything like this but there are certain things not even the strongest mind can overcome. So he occupies himself in order to get his mind of this train. He cleans a house that isn't his own, cooks meals and runs after a bunch of children. It worked surprisingly well for a long time. Way too long, and now it's all back in ruins, folding like a house of cards right in front of his eyes.

That one time he should have put a bullet in Gin rather than just grazing his cheek. Would have saved a lot of people. Shinichi, it would have saved Shinichi.

Sometimes, when the thoughts start so spiral in his head way too fast, he opens the wardrobe and stars at the bag. It's a tempting idea to just grab it and go. To feel the familiar metal under his fingertips and the sound of the bullet in his ears. It's not a great job, being a sniper, but he's damn good at it.

But then he remembers the small child, remembers what he's supposed to do, watch of them okay? Make sure nobody gets hurt? and he shuts the door with way too much force and goes down into the living room in order to flee the pictures and desires that are stirring right under the surface. He promised, dame, and he broke enough of them. Not this time he swears silently to him, for once he wants to save people instead of seeing them hurt.

But the mind is a funny thing, something that you can't control or bury deep enough. No matter how calm he is, no matter how far away he is, it always catches up. Then the blood rushes through his ears and he can see white stars behind his eyes. Memories, of a boy barley breathing, the smell of death and disinfection, it all comes back to him so suddenly that he always needs to steady him afterward.

He had been there, had stood in the door way and watched the small redhead breaking down. Had been there when she came running towards his house with a phone clenched in one hand and the glasses in the other. Had been there, in the old warehouse with the strained walls and had been there, with clenched fists around the wheel, when they drove to the hospital. He will never forget it, the scream that ripped through the silent night. He remembers Gin once saying that silent nights are the most fun because you could hear them scream better. He remembers all the blood and the body, finally grown but still so damn young and small.

It's almost pitiful how it affects him. Akemi's death did that. Still does, when he remembers her soft hands on his back in the dark of his bedroom. He always thought that she would be the first and last one to hunt him like this. Hoped that she would be the only one that he imagines sometimes beside him, alive and with that hopeful smile. Sworn to let her be the last one that got hurt. He failed, and now he sometimes hears footsteps in the corridors or imagines a sharp smile in the mirror when nobody's behind him.

He throws a wary glance out of the kitchen window, half expecting to finally see the Porsche. But they're staying low, waiting for a time when things may have calmed down a bit. He laughs bitterly. Idiots, they killed Shinichi Kudo, things will never calm down again.

A small part of him screams that in fact, Shinichi Kudo is not dead at all, but it doesn't matter. They took another one of them, as if it was nothing, as if there would be no consequences and it makes Akai angry. He may have done something stupid but the promise was still fresh in his mind, hastily spoken above the line with a way to rapid breathing.

"Keep them save okay? They don't deserve to get tangled into this." You also didn't he wanted to reply in this moment. Nobody deserved to be their target, but then again, Kudo maybe just had replied that this was his job. Stupid, loyal, brave child.

He startles by the sound of the door bell, not realising that he stared at a family picture the whole time. They're smiling, one single happy moment forever freeze and framed behind glass. He tries not to think about the fact that this may be the last one of those.

The second ring finally gets him into motion. He's half tempted to just ignore it but then again, maybe it's the scientist or the Detective Boys and after all he made a promise. Just because he isn't in the mood for social interactions would be the poorest excuse he ever gave.

Breathing in deeply he opens the door, one hand discretely in the back of his waistband, his fingers curling around the metal handle. He's prepared.

He's not prepared of what awaits him outside the door. "Ran-san" he nearly stutters because she's the last person he expected. He wouldn't even judge her if she had leave it all behind her, two long dreadful years with nothing than agony in the end.

"Good morning Subaru-san. May I come in?" She looks awful, with bags under her eyes and there's a certain paleness that he knows comes from grief. There's a small, awful part of him that is relieved by her appearance. She did not left it all behind. He's an awful person just for thinking this way.

He should send her away, she's not safe here, she's not save in Japan. But he steps aside, grip slowly loosing around the handle. She's dangerous, but not in this way.

Her eyes sweep through the corridor, and there's a pain. It's all cleaned up but lifeless, the house feels recently more like a dead body without a soul than a house. He leads her into the living room and then excuses himself to the kitchen to flee her presence for a moment. The steaming water vapour fogs his glasses, another rather annoying part of his disguise. But it's distracting and gives him a moment longer to sort out his mind.

There's a faint chance that she just wants to talk. Maybe about what should happen to him now. But the hair of his neck rises and signals him that there's something else. And he will not like talking about this issue.

"Protect them."

The words still echo from every wall, every corner. As if his presence still lingers here, between the books, on the couch or the kitchen. Akai never understood the term living with ghosts better than in these past days. Kudo always wanted to protect others, but who protected him in this cold night?

Mouri glances at him above the rim of the cup when he finally settles down. He almost falls into the nervous patter of fiddling with his fingers but then again, he was a professional agent he would survive a talk with Ran Mouri.

"We want to take them down you know."

He would defiantly don't survive this talk. Was that really Mouri-san? For a dreadful second he expects blond locks to fall down her shoulders but the girl before him doesn't break out in successful giggles or tries to shoot him. Which made this all even more confusing.

"You know, they always say that hurt rips people apart" she carefully sets down the cup without taking her eyes of him for one second. "They don't really know what they're talking about." Blue, burning eyes, and there's a familiarly that almost makes him say yes. But only almost because in a spit of a second he reminds himself what she suggest. What she implies.

"I'm sorry Ran-san. I don't understand what you try to say." He's and engineer student. He doesn't have a gun in his wardrobe and files under his mattress. And he hopefully is convincing.

For a moment she almost looks disappointed, as if she expected him to tell her everything that happened, but he isn't quiet sure if she would understand. If anyone could understand this, the way every stranger makes your skin itch, the way you try to not stand out, that every attention you get could break you the neck in the end. Nobody can understand this and as much as he admires her attempts, she doesn't understand the whole picture.

"I know what you're thinking." Her knuckles are white while her fists clench around the fabric of her trousers. "I know that you think I'm totally starry-eyed when it comes to them. I'm not. I saw what they did." She throws a small glance in the direction of the professors house. So she knows.

"And I know what they will do." Her voice just shakes for a second but it's enough to allow him to look past her façade. She's angry, more angry than he had ever seen anyone. And she's also dangerous like this. "They will take him. They fear for no consequences. They're stupid. And I want them to pay for it. For every single crime they committed."

He stares at her. She's crossing a line, a line carefully created by Kudo, a line that should keep her save. He's not sure if he should admire her for her bravery or yell at her because she's destroying every safety the detective created around her.

"I have people that will help me. Maybe we're not the most influencing group but we can do a lot of damage." Before they will find the new threat and eliminate it. Suddenly he realises that he may be the last safety that was left. She knows things, things that killed people before. And she's determined. It's a dangerous line she's balancing on and without a safety net she will surely break her neck.

His hand curls around his fake red hair and pulls it down. Subaru Okiya would be rather useless in this fight, even with his extraordinary skills. But it was not good enough for them. Akai, Akai was a different story. Akai has a weapon in his wardrobe and files under his mattress. With a soft snap the voice transmitter is gone. He can't suppress the reflex to roll his neck. It had been a long time, but now it's over.

They're going to put everything on one card.

He smiles a soft smile at the girl before him. If she's surprised, she hides it very well. Not that he really minds if she knows. After all he's the last safety.

"I'm very good at shooting things Ran-san. Think you can make good use of my skills?"

There's a rather cold smile on her lips, one that shows your scars to the out world. It does and doesn't suite her at the same time but it's there and he knows that nothing will change that.

This time he wouldn't break his promise. The one he gave to the chased boy that night and the one he gives the girl over the coffee table. This time he will protect them all.

* * *

So, surprise. I made it. Finally.

Sincerely Anemonenfisch

Preciousshinichi: To be honestly, I don't really know how many I will upload. I still plan a few that will defiantly appear but I'm rather openminded when it Comes to the lenght of the Story.

Rockster: Thanks for pointing that out, I corrected the mistake. Feel free to Point out more Little Details.


	8. Rei

Spoilers, again. Like lots of them. Major. Do not read this unless you want to know a lot of stuff about Rei Furuya. If you don't know who this is, watch Conan until you know. If you don't care for spoilers, please read and leave a comment.

* * *

Zero. There's zero left for him, and he hates this feeling nagging at his heart. He should not feel like this, not after all that happened. Not after Scotch, not after Date. It's like a cruel curse hunting him. He loses people that are close to him.

Rei throws the towel rather frustrated at the table before taking a few deep breaths. He would not lose it, not now. That would rather pathetic. Instead he focuses on the clock, counting the seconds until the haze lifts itself again.

There's a phone number in his contacts that he just needs to call and Amuro Tooru would disappear without a trace. Agents were expensive, even when they lived in a criminal organisation far too long. That had been clear from the start, if you smell danger, we will stop this.

But what would he do, in this apartment in a city far away? This would change nothing and so he tests fate every day again and again when he moves through the familiar door. Also, something deep inside him doesn't want to leave. It doesn't have something to do with fear, it's about loyalty. Something that he swore long ago died. Rei Furuya was not loyal, not to anyone. He help the Bureau but for what? They were years away from taking the crows down.

And they still continue killing. As if the law couldn't affect them.

He slowly unclenches his fists, trying not to think back to the sound of the female voice in the apartment above him. She had been loud that night, and he shouldn't have listen to their fight. He had seen it, had knew that it would went down that road, because the good people don't win, not in this world.

But there always had been a small part that sincerely hoped that at least one of them would make it, would make it back into security. And they shattered that illusion.

That night, if he might have went after the boy who stood in front of his life in ruins, than he might had been able to avoid this. But he hadn't. Hadn't walked out of the café and into the night. He should, just one time he would have made the right decision. He killed him the same way the girl did. And it hurts more than it should.

There's still a lot of things Kudo doesn't know, a lot of things that Rei wanted him to know. Just that he doesn't think bad about him. He's acting like a small child again, like the child that wanted so badly friends.

Rei releases a soft breath.

One call and he will sit in an empty apartment without history. No Bourbon, no Tooru. His gaze lingers at the bar. One god damn call and he would have the rest of his life back.

But then again, there's also a number in his phone that he will never call again. He will never see him again, none of them. Because they will kill them, one by one until the streets are dyed red and the Tokyo Police has to bury more of them. They will start with him.

He doesn't want to think about graveyards, about visiting them again and telling them that he's sorry. Sorry for not being there, sorry for not protecting them, sorry for everything he had done and what he didn't.

He's not good at leaving the past behind him, he still has his old uniform in a box, along with pictures. A very little, totally unimportant part of his brain clutched to them. And he hadn't been able to kill it off completely and burn it to ash. Back then, when everything had been easy, when he worried about nothing else than the next exam and the way he and Date stood at the graduation day next to each other. Every would have been so easy until the man walked into the office one day and then everything went down.

Sometimes he thinks about when the ambitious cop changed into the manipulative bastard he's today. It's because playing fair doesn't lead to victory. And Kudo didn't saw that and see where he got. Because the kid had morals, something that you need to throw overboard when they first force you to shot someone in order to climb the ranks. He still hears the click of the gun in his nightmares. It's nothing, nothing he couldn't handle.

The smell of Bourbon fills his nose, something familiar. Bourbon is unrepentant, doesn't care about anything, not about the body's or the smell of blood. And the kid ruined it. With laughers and smiles. Ruined it without a way back. He should really hate the kid.

The alcohol goes down his throat smoothly, the ice cubes in the glass bang together with a small krack. He lost count of how many times he wanted to throw the drink against a wall but forced himself to shallow instead. Because he's good at playing this game. So good that he maybe will not find a way out again.

This time he's alone, no gun again his neck so he takes the liberty and throws the glass with force against the wall. The sound of shattering glass follows, sounding like a thunder in the empty room. He's breathing way to fast, he realises before the knock on the door tears him away from his thoughts that started to rush in a dangerous spiral toward the point that you're nothing, you lost everything again, you're the most pathetic human, can't protect them, can't protect them from something that you should know like the back of your hand.

Mouri-san stands in front of the door, her breath fogging the glass. She looks a bit lost and there's a ugly part of him that wants to laugh at her face, just to make her feel sorry for every word she said. But then again, he's guilty in all the same ways so he turns the key and stars at her with cold eyes. It doesn't matter if she realises that Tooru Amuro doesn't exist in reality, maybe then she will realise how close they had been, how easily they could have broke her neck.

"What is it?" He observes her, every reaction, the way her eyes grow hard at the greeting.

"We need to talk." He doesn't move because there's something in the bush and he doesn't like it. "Mouri-san, I don't recall anything that we could talk about." She's hurt by his words but then again, so was the boy. But unlike Kudo she doesn't turn around, instead she crosses her arms and stares at him. "You want them as dead as I want them."

This time, he nearly throws the door in her face because he stops and instead adjusts the grip on the handle. "You shouldn't." Because this would make everything pointless. And he would not allow it, that this stupid girl with her clouded judgement would ruin something that had been paid with blood. With life.

He effectively ignores the voice that tells him that Kudo's still breathing.

Ran shoves him back into the café with all the force you expect from a yearlong karate champion and with a fire in her eyes that is new. New, but not unwelcomed. Her hands are shaking and he can see the twitching of her pupils, how they are blown a bit too wide for a calm person.

"I don't care what I should and what I shouldn't." Her voice is nothing more than a dangerous low whisper. "They took him, without giving a fuck about anything." The swear echo's between them, as they both breath hard, inhaling the smell of alcohol and the cold night.

Mouri-san suddenly loses the grip, making her feature looking kind of small and vulnerable again. It's an easy thing, in a blink of an eye you couldn't imagine this girl to do any harm. It's something that should bother him. It doesn't because he's not a good person. Not anymore.

"I'm one of them." Just that she knows how close they can be, just to explain her the road she's about to travel. She nods, telling him without words that there are others. For a second he's surprised but then again, the kid made a lot of strange friends.

Briefly he wonders how many, how many will be out there with a heart filled with rage. They would need everyone, after all they would go to war.

"Akai told me." He forgets how to breath, forgets the war, forgets their sins and just remembers, remembers the blood and the smoking gun. Barley he can restrain himself from jumping at her and to make her spill all the information. "You hate him." Her eyes are fixed on his fists, something like sadness flickering over her face. "He didn't told me why." Because he killed a friend.

He bits his lip until he can taste copper. "I have my reasons." he spits out. Mouri-san nods slowly, as if she could understand. She doesn't, hopefully never will. "He also said that I shouldn't tell you about it. But then again, an army can't be formed on lies, can it?"

He won't work with him, not after what happened. Not after everything. But the words are stuck in his throat. He wants so badly to say no, to shove her out of the café and to disappear tomorrow.

Scotch would have like Shinichi Kudo, the thought hits him like a train. Date would have loved the kid even more. So he shallows down rage and hatred and tells himself that's for them. That's in order to save the good people for once.

"We will work it out." It a bold lie, but there's a hint of truth in it. Mouri-san relaxes, even smiles a bit at him but he saw her true face. She will tear them down, one by one with ruthless efficiency.

He's not a good person. Instead he's that kind of person that offers dark secrets and a loaded gun to a girl that's balancing between justice and revenge. That offers his help in exchange for blood. But at least it's for the right thing this time, at least he will be able to save this person that ruined his way back into the darkness.

* * *

So, yeah. I made Ran rather dark in this one, basically because Rei is described as somebody who uses tricks to get what he wants. So he's the what? darkest one of them? So Ran wouldn't be able to sit down with him and drink tea. I'm not exactly sure, but I wanted you to see this side of Ran, the one that will make tear down the organisation.

Reviews?

Sincerely Anemonenfisch


	9. Jodie

Jodie

Sometimes, Jodie thinks that they might have angered a Japanese spirit, one of those who live in these shrines and protect the people, when they came to Japan the first time. Maybe there were some old, unknown but rather important rituals which you had to perform before stepping on its holy ground. And they broke it. And the consequences had finally caught up with them.

Or maybe she was the one, the one that had been cursed from the start, from the moment when she met the woman with the blond hair for the first time.

Maybe she should have never become an agent in the first place. Maybe then, everything would have played out differently. Not that it really mattered anymore. They were at the end, they just don't want to admit it, don't want to look at what they've done for nothing. Japan took a lot from her.

Most of the time she tries not to think about it, about her loses, because it's life. You break up with the man you love because of some shady organisation, then the man gets killed. Totally normal, everyday events. Or you met a young boy, one so sharp that for the first time in years, you finally start to belief that maybe this is it. That this is the hint you prayed for all these times. That this was your chance to extinct them.

It's funny, really, how she never made the connection quite right. Because she should have found out right at the start. She taughts his class English for heavens sake. She should have made the connection between the empty seat and the detective. Maybe then she could have done something about it. Offering protection, offering something, anything that would have saved him from this outcome.

But she didn't. She failed, like so many times before. So she accepts her punishment. She would be the one to bear the consequences. Even with James and Camels protests, this was her place. Right here, one the uncomfortable seat in front of the desk. Through the closed door she could hear the hushed voices of passing people. They don't like her, she knows that her presence is totally unwanted. She doesn't judge them, after all she took something previous to them. After all, nobody liked being messed with.

But also this isn't the right time for accusation or a vendetta. Now's the time for swallowing their pride and to do some work.

Megure follows every movement she makes, from the hand that holds the cup of coffee to the one that explains the connections between on of the biggest underground organisations and Japan. He isn't happy, his face such a different from the normally good nature expression. He would have tore them apart that very night, when they fought about the protection, if he wouldn't have known that he needed them. My enemie's foe is my friend.

Still she can see exactly the point where the cup met the wall. It's a funny thing how fast things could turn around. She never considered the TPD to be a problem to the FBI, but oh had she been wrong. They fought for their members, even when these were teenagers and way better of under the wing of the FBI. But no, they had there chance and they blew it big time. No it was the turn of the locals to fight their enemies.

Their leads are thing, evidences a scarce and their brains slowly turn to some sort of resignation. It's like running in endless circles, but this time you know that they wait out there, and you know their target. They should really have moved the kid out of Japan.

She stops for a moment, somewhere between the lines of the information they gained from an undercover agent and some theories that were born in sleepless and high on caffeineish minds. They are running after everything by now, no matter how absurd or dangerous. They're grabbing at their last straws, and Jodie is afraid that one of them will break the camels back.

The coffee stopped tasting about anything specific after two days, now she barely tastes anything at all or feeling the caffeine in her system. Nor does her body signals her hunger or tiredness. It just works, like a machine that somebody forget to turn of. This starts to turn them all into brainless Zombies in the end.

"This doesn't make sense" the man opposite of her says, making her temper boil under her skin because, yeah, she knows that they are all pointless but what should she do? She isn't a genius detective, but she works as hard as she can. They all do. She's afraid that James will even start to strangle people of the telephone lines, their American peers aren't quiet helpful at the moment, nor is the Japanese government. At the moment they're busy with playing the guilty card at each other without taking into account what was on the stake.

"I know" she bits back but it sounds way too tired to be an insult, her voice is almost to thin to reach over the noises from outside. Suddenly she's tired, oh so tired. She just wants to go home, wants to leave this country and all the broken things behind and forget them. She wants to run like a coward, out of the station and to the next airport. It would be so much easier.

Instead she forces her back to straighten a bit and her fingers to drop the empty cup in the bin instead of throwing it on the wall. This would lead to nothing.

She's about to call it a day, about to pack her things and go to the apartment and to work through all of them again in order to find something, anything that would allow them to make a move, no matter how small, when she hears the knock.

She throws a curious glance at the police officer, but he just looks as tired and worn-out as she feels.

"Come in."

She knows the people before her, but her mind is a bit slow when it's not focused on the BO so she needs a few seconds to identify them correctly. Ran stands there, with her arms crossed and a stack of files under her arm. She smiles, a bit weary, but it's the first not forced smile Jodie sees in what feels like ages.

Beside her, there are two police officers, she's not sure about the male, even when she could have sworn that his name stars with a T, but she knows the female on. That's Miwako Sato. She nearly falls of her chair when she realises, that Akai is with them.

She always thought about what would be after the job had been completed. How they would maybe finally make it through it all. But that fantasy had been crushed, not only by his dead but by the fact that she saw him afterwards. The scar isn't there and Jodie can't stop her mind from racing through different possibilities how that could be possible. Tears burn behind her eyes but she doesn't allow them to fall, or to even become visible. This was not the place to cry over spilled milk.

Instead she clears her throat and focuses back on Ran. They thought about getting her out of Japan too, but they weren't in the mood to randomly tear people out of their home when it wasn't necessary. Ran is a civilian. An innocent person who just happened to know someone. There was no logical way that would connect her to this whole mess. They would have found it by now.

"Good morning Jodie-sensei, good morning Inspector. I want to talk with you about something." Slowly she pulls out one of the files, a normal, non suspicious brown folder. When she opens it, it was filled with sheets, filled with a neat handwriting. She doesn't recognize it as Ran's, something that comes in handy when you looked over her schoolwork for a few months.

The writing changes after two pages, someone added a few things, some things are highlighted with different colours.

"We found out quit a bit about them, that Shinichi couldn't because he lacked the resources. But we didn't start to dig deeper in it, not without the things we miss. So, this is what we found out." Jodie only listens half heartly, her eyes scanning over every line twice to take it in and memorize it. Her starving brain happily leaps on the new information, chewing it, comparing it, connecting it. That's what they lacked, that was the blind spot, the missing piece they couldn't find.

And now they had it. "Ran-kun, I don't think that this is something you should get involved in." It's Megure who talks, not looking at the pages for a second, instead looking at the girl in worry. Jodie can feel her cheeks heating up. Of course, she would have done it again. Would have risked another life just for this, just for getting something. Hectically she tears her eyes away and addresses the girl. "I agree Mouri-san. It's way too dangerous for you. Not after what happened …" she couldn't say it out loud, instead she tries to look as convincing as possible. We've got it, so don't worry. Just go home and do whatever you do normally.

"I'm going to be 18 in a few months. I'm fully capable on making my own decisions and be aware of the consequences. This is not about some childish thoughts I had, I understand what this is about." Jodie can hear that there are other things Ran would have said gladly but shallowed. Maybe some inappropriate things, about how they dared to tell what to do when they couldn't do it themselves. Things about how their protection worked oh so wonderful last time.

She's hurt, deep down, in a way Jodie understands way too good. But she handless it surprisingly well. Throwing an unsure glance toward the Inspector, Jodie picks up the folder. "So, this is all you?" It's one of five, maybe six, she can't see it exactly, but it's a mass of new information.

"No, it's mostly Shinichi's work, but I found some people that were willingly enough to add things, to correct things." She stars out of the window for a moment, somewhere into the distance, like she remembers something that happened a long time ago. "He found out so much, even when he was Conan, found out so many dangerous things, and I didn't notice at all." she whispers more to herself than to her audience.

Jodie puts awkwardly an arm around her, she still walks like she's on thin ice and one false step would be their all doom. But she wants the girl to know that it's okay. That this was not her fault in any way. She's sure that Ran wouldn't believe her. They all made their decisions, one more irresponsible than others.

She meets Shuichi's eyes and something like a half smile crosses his lips. She mirrors it, finally letting go of the girl. Her eyes are a bit glassy, but she doesn't show anything. She is different from the girl she used to be. Jodie isn't sure if she likes the transformation but now she needs to deal with it.

Megure clears his throat, causing Jodie to stiff a bit. He will hate her for this forever. For just bringing another person into the spotlight.

"If anything happens, you are out of the country in under an hour." It's a near to a yes as they could get him. And it's a bigger step forward than they had managed to make. She had put all her hopes on Conan, all her trust even he had been just a little kid at that time. Maybe now's the perfect time to show him, that she would earn his trust instead.

* * *

A happy new year to all of you. Sorry that I just included Jodie from the FBI and somehow cheated with Megure. I'm honestly way too lazy for writing them all. Also, I dealt with the responsibility question. Somehow.


	10. Sonoko

Sonoko Suzuki knows, that most people don't like her. She knows it, knows how they talk behind her back, how they call her arrogant and a slut. The truth is she never cared much about them, because she had people that convinced her that she's alright. She had Ran. And against the public opinion, Sonoko cared a lot about her friends. She cared about when Ran hurt herself during karate training, started to tolerant the detective otaku in order to make Ran happy. So she could be a decent human being. Because she cared for Ran. Which doesn't mean that she really cared for the stupid guy.

She was the one that took the liberty to curse him to hell and back instead of Ran, because she would never do it herself. But what do you have friends for if not wishing dead above those that hurt you.

Ran was a safe harbor. It was save to care about her, it was easy to like her. Caring about Shinichi Kudo equals an emotional rollercoaster. So she doesn't. She really does not care about him. And if she does, it's for Ran sake.

And if she once considered hunting him down with a private detective, who cares? She has the money after all. And you could only go into a shopping marathon a specific number before you have the urge to burn everything down.

But now, Ran isn't a safe harbor anymore. Caring about her became a dangerous thing too, starting with the first day she didn't went to school. Or maybe it started the first day Shinichi dropped out of school and didn't come back with his tail between his legs and a excuse that was related to blood and a crime scene. But whatever, it's Shinichi who drops out of school occasionally without a care in the world, but never Ran. So Sonoko beats herself through Math, Chemistry and History without sparing the empty seat one glance. Because this means nothing. This doesn't mean she will have to deal with another empty seat.

Because Ran isn't Shinichi, Ran is Ran and Ran wouldn't do that. She's not him and so Sonoko tries to beat the small clenches her heart makes from time to time.

She calls later, not because she's worried or thinks that something isn't right but because she wanted to, waiting until Kogoro picks up the phone, telling her in a surprisingly sober voice that Ran doesn't feel well. It's a lie. She doesn't know how she knows it, but it isn't the truth. Maybe she really spend to much time around detectives or police officers, or maybe it was her new intention that seems to kick in now and then, even when she can't remember a damn thing afterwards, but something's wrong.

The next day Ran is back, just with purple shadows under her eyes and something awfully tired about her whole appearance. When Sonoko asks, Ran just forces a smile and than ignores her in favor of the teacher.

It's a feeling that makes the little hairs on her neck stand up. Because suddenly Ran didn't just missed a day. Suddenly Ran had lied to her.

She doesn't even pretend to believe her the next time she makes an excuse, just walks away with her head high and her nose even higher. She walks exactly 30 steps before locking herself inside a toilet cabin and crying her eyes out. But a Suzuki doesn't cry. High society never cries, just for photos and in the right moment. And especially not in a school toilet. Sometimes she hates her family.

They are both hurt, but they don't talk. Ran's busy with something, something that she doesn't tell Sonoko and Sonoko is busy being angry and hurt. And then the media steps in. Suddenly it's everywhere, Shinichi's face with various headlines.

Genius shot. Detective dead. Guy stuck his nose into the wrong business.

After that Ran doesn't come to school a whole week. And after two days at school which she haunted like a ghost, she leaves again. For another week. She doesn't answer her phone, no matter how many times Sonoko talks, screams and insults the voice mail. When she nearly kills the door bell, she's only met with a stern face of her father. He tells her, voice low and smooth, that Ran wasn't there at the moment and then pushes her down the stairs before she realizes that he just locked her out again.

The man inside the café throws a glance at her that makes her crossing of the option of waiting for Ran inside the cozy room. Instead she walks alongside the class front, blinking against the memory of them sitting inside, drinking hot chocolate and eating cake. She misses that, she even misses the brat dancing between her legs.

Sonoko nearly walks against street lamp when she realizes that she didn't heard anything from Conan since a very long time.

When she comes back she avoids the suspicious eyes of her mother and moves straight to her room. Inside she sits down onto the ground and starts to think. Just thinking, not letting anything fogging her mind. Just moving through every memory she has, making connections between them and tying all the lose ends together. Shinichi really had a bad influence on her.

When she's done, the clock shows an unholy hour and her head swims. Her eyes burn and she knows that she isn't even close to the answer. But she isn't a detective, she's just a rich brat. It hurts more than ever before. So she passes out on the bed, dreaming about dead bodies that aren't big enough to pass as a teenager and Ran walking away of her and no matter how fast Sonoko ran, she wasn't able to reach her.

The next day her eyelashes are sticking together, making it almost impossible to open them at all. Her head hurts and she rather feels like she passed one of Ran's karate lessons than just sleeping bad. She passes out for about half an hour in English, which leaves her with a detention to deal with and an enormous headache. Ran`s seat is still empty but Sonoko barely registers anything at that day. What she does register is the new heist notice inside the newspaper before she decides to use it as a improvise pillow.

Later she halfheartly listens to her uncle ramping about KID and how he would catch him this time. Normally she would have jumped with glee, because KID-sama would appear again and she was allowed to sit in the front row again but it wouldn't be the same without Ran. Hell, she would even miss the brat. So she silently pokes at her dinner and then excuses herself.

Beside, as great and hot and overall perfect the thief may be, she had a bigger issue than her crush on him. She had a friendship which was about to go to hell.

After Ran broke the record of missing for 18 days ( no, Sonoko was not counting is was simple math because you could work with all the sheets that started to flow her desk), Sonoko did something stupid. And maybe a bit reckless. And maybe it was also a really desperate action which was normally under her. But she was one step away from going crazy and so she threw all her pride overboard and made herself comfortable in front of Ran`s doorway.

It's late summer, the border toward autumn approaching at an alarming speed and despite the fact that she had the feeling of roasting in the morning, it's getting colder by every passing minute. Or maybe it was her imagination because suddenly she feels very, very alone and lost. Stubbornly she tucks her knees under her chin and buries her head in her arms. She doesn't want to be alone again, she wants them back, both of them. She wants to argue with Shinichi and wants to drag Ran to the city. She wants Shinichi to crack riddles and she wants him to tell them about it. She wants Conan back.

She just wants her friends not to disappear.

The first sob wrecks through her body. It's cold and it's late and everybody has someone to go to beside her and she's going to sit on that damn stairs until Ran decided to drag her ass from wherever she had been. Crying was even more impropriated than inside a toilet cabin but she doesn't give a damn about what people may thing about her.

She just wants Ran to come and hug her like she always does. With her warm and protective hugs that made you believe that the world could go to hell and that you were save there. She wants to hug Shinichi. She wants them back.

There's a sound, like somebody dropped glass or cans inside a bag. "S-sonoko?" Sonoko nearly falls down the damn stairs while trying to reach Ran as fast as she could. It's like in the dream again, no matter how fast her feets move, she will never ever reach her again, she will be forced to watch her disappear. But this time she's able to grab something solide, something that smells like Ran. Like warmth, like summer and like home.

"I-I'm sorry." she sobbs into her shoulder, she's totally running that piece of clothing with her tears and all the other things that stream down her face. "I-I-I don't want to lose you too." I should have hired that damn private detective back then.

"Sssh, ssh, Sonoko." There's something weird about Ran's hands. They could break things with so much ease, could punch through objects within a second but they could also pat you one the back with so much care if you had an emotional breakdown. "Gosh, you're freezing, how long did you were out here?"

"W-waited for you." Sonoko hiccups, burying herself deep inside the memories that came with Ran's smell. They were good. Good and save.

"Let's go inside." Ran takes her by the hand like a small child and Sonoko walks behind her with small, unsure steps. Her whole body seemed to be a bit unsure about her surrounding.

And then suddenly she's on a couch with something warm and sweet between her hands and god, she didn't realized how cold it had been outside until now. A shiver runs down her spine. But now isn't the right moment to get lost, she reminds herself. Now was the moment for truth and some honest conversation.

"Conan isn't here, is he?" She has a suspicion about all of this. It's hazy, there are more pieces who don't fit inside the picture and she really couldn't wrap her mind about any of this but something was wrong and all the leads pointed at Conan with a huge, red arrow.

"No, he isn't here Sonoko." "Shinichi is also not back." Ran inhales the smell of her own cup like it's the most precious thing on earth. She's avoiding eye contact by the way, not even Sonoko would miss that. It makes the hairs of her neck standing up.

"Oi Ran, you can stop beating about the bush you know?" She's bluffing, trying to convince her friend to tell her wants exactly behind the bush. Because she doesn't have a clue about it.

Ran chuckles, a low and soft sound that sounds somehow wrong and a bit broken. "It's unfair Sonoko, I wished I had the courage to tell him the exact same thing back then." "So, something happened to Shinichi." Who do I need to pay to tidy up this mess Ran? "You read the newspaper? All the stories about him being dead? It's funny how they never acted that way when he was still just missing?" Well basically, he wasn't missing. Nobody filled out a report or informed the school. It had been just normal for him to disappear for a longer period of time. "We had been so reckless. So carefree. How could we believe that everything was okay?"

"Shinichi's death?" Her voice cracks way too much for her liking and even after she clears her throat it won't come out as strong as she wishes. "No Sonoko, just really badly hurt." She puts an arm around her friend, which is a bit awkward because they both try not to spill any of their hot liquid and the couch isn't such a great place for cuddling. Ran's elbow pocks uncomfortable into her rips but Sonoko doesn't care. "And Conan? He's also badly hurt?" "They're the same Sonoko. He had been always there."

It's logical. It's the most logical answer in this puzzle. Shinichi disappears, Conan appears. No backstory, perfect timing. They're were so stupid. Sonoko tries not to curse loudly.

"All the time?" "All the time. He listened to everything. To everything we said, watched over everything we did." Sonoko shallows dryly. She suddenly remembers crystal clear that she hadn't been very discrete about her opinion of Shinichi. And he heard it all. Like, she would have told him everything straight to his face when he decided to come back from his oh so big and mysterious case, but he literally had been here the whole time.

Most of her angered rooted inside the fact that he left.

"What happened?" And so Ran tells her. About bad people, about a criminal organization, about being at the wrong place, about the wrong time, about a bunch of coincidences, about the warehouse, about the fact that there are now a bunch of very angry people, about the fact that she was angry. Deciding that this was her time to sit still and listen, Sonoko draws little circles in Ran's back.

"You know, I should simply have hired that private detective in the first place." she says after the hot chocolate is empty and they both ran out of conversation material. "But I didn't, means I have still a bunch of money left." Ran looks at her and her eyes say, no, you're normal, you're not going to say what I think you will say.

But Sonoko had been wrong. Big time wrong. And she knows that she will need to pay her debts. It's one step into the direction of bringing Shinichi back. Of bringing her friend back. So she just let's her lips curve into a smirk and finishes: " I mean, a revenge always needs a sponsor doesn't it?"

* * *

The heist note? Remember that? Hah, I'm such a geniuse and totally don't try to despratly tie that all together.

Sincerely Anemonenfisch


	11. Sera

Sera is on a case when it happens. Later she doesn't even remember correctly what it was all about. Something about murder, secrets, one of those things that could have been solved with honesty and real communication rather than with blood. But she's allowed to drop out of school for a while so she goes anyway. She waves goodbye to Ran and Conan from the trainstation and thinks about nothing at all while watching the landscape in front of her window. Because everything's normal. Because everything's good at the moment.

After a week, it seems like ages passed in Tokyo. She can't walk through a street without having the feeling that his faces stares at her from all sides. Detective shot. Boy wonder in danger. Where was Kudo Shinichi the last two years?

All sudden, the whole world seems to have turned around and recognized, that something had been missing all the time. She switches the TV out in order to prevent herself from throwing it out of the window. The stories they make up are hideous. How he switched sides and is now a bad guy. How he run away from a girl that supposedly bears his child. Come one, everyone with a bit brain in their heads should be disgusted by this.

Or maybe it's really only Sera who suddenly hates the whole world. Maybe the world really forget who Kudo was and now tries to come up with a picture that in no way resembles the truth. This thought makes her sick. Because nobody could, no nobody should, forget who Kudo was. That simply shouldn't be possible.

But Ran's not there when she comes to school and Sonoko doesn't even looks her way. It hurts in a way Sera doesn't even know she could be hurt because suddenly, she doesn't know anything. She's used to know things, used to solve complex cases and suddenly she's the one in the dark. It reminds her of the first time her brother didn't made it for dinner, when her parents just looked at her sadly and said that Akai wouldn't come home for a rather long time. But back then everything got okay again. She can call him. She can write him. They are okay overall. But this feels wrong on a totally different level. She watches as Sonoko makes her way out of class, watches as she tries to masks her stiff shoulders and throws half-hearted smiles in all directions. This feels like it would never be okay again.

Her first impulse is to call her brother, maybe even both of them and to ask them what the heck went wrong with this city since she left. And how she could fix this all. Because she's good at fixing things. But when Akai doesn't pick up, she feels her stomach drop. He missed calls before, it's one of these things that happen when you're in the FBI of to do whatever secret agents do, but it's the first time she really feels like he failed her. Maybe it's the first time she remembers how long ago she actually saw him in person. It's such a horrible thought that she refuses to try it again. He wouldn't pick up, a voice says in her head, because he isn't even there anymore.

She's not a weak girl, but she's still young and suddenly, the hotel room, once symbol that she's free, that she can do whatever she wants, feels weirdly lonely. Sera allows her head to fall agains the wall with a thump. The sound echos trough the room. What if Shukichi doesn't pick up too? What if they all truly left her? Her throat feels weirdly tight and dry and her eyes burn. She nearly growls while rubbing over them. Sera Masumi doesn't cry. Not over such a stupid little thing.

Shukichi answers after a few seconds in which Sera unconsciously puts the fedora on her head. It's a habit.

"What the hell happened?" She says with the most neutral voice she could manage. "What the hell happened to the world while I was away?"

"Masumi …" "Shu-nii doesn't answers his phone. Do you know why?" She's not sure if they were close, but it's a beginning. "I didn't talked to him recently. You know, that's what you're supposed to do when you play dead." There's anger in his voice and she suddenly thinks about that maybe she's not the only one that feels lonely. Or left behind. "Is Kudo dead?" She holds her breath, fingers digging into her hat to the point where she's sure that there will be a hole left behind. "You saw the news? It's mostly gossip. But it needs to have a source. Masumi, I know you liked that guy but …" She ends the call because she doesn't want her brother to listen to her sobs.

Of course there needs to be a source. The world wouldn't come up with something like this out of nowhere. After all, nobody cared before. Why making something up?

When she makes the next call her hands shake so much that she dials the wrong number at least two times. Her vision is blurry but fuck it. He couldn't be dead. She isn't going to allow him to just drop out of her life like this. Without a good bye. Without telling him that she knows.

The connection had been an easy one. Counting two and two together. Having the luck to almost catching him a few times.

Her scare hurts again, phantom pain burning murderously in her stomach. She suddenly remembers his screams, remembers how her vision became darker and darker but she only looked at him, looked at him freaking out and trying to stop the blood, (so much blood, how was she even able to bleed that much?) and felt peace. They say that in such moments, you see your whole life. She didn't. She just felt the happiness of saving this amazing human being. To make it possible for him to go one.

She didn't died that day, he wasn't allowed to be death now. That would be unfair.

But the other side stays dead. He isn't there anymore. And Sera feels like the walls are closing in. He left. And she would never bring him back.

The next day she skips school and passes the morning by staring out of the window. She has a great view, having the privilege to be awakened by the sun. It's the most gorgeous picture she could imagine, the sun rise over Tokyo. But today the clouds remind her of blood and the sun suddenly is too bright to bear and so she draws the curtains and curls up into her bed again.

It's the first morning without Conan. Without Shinichi. She feels like the world wasn't worth watching today.

But then again, she isn't a person who stays in a bad mood for too long. So at noon she sits on her bed, leg crossed and surfs in the internet. Because if her brother is right, then there's a source. And she will find it and drag it out of its hiding spot and then the two of them will have a chat. A nice, civilized chat.

Calling Ran becomes pointless pretty quick because either her father or the mail box answers, both equally interested in telling her something. Kogoro doesn't even tells her about his daughter. She understands that this is hard for Ran, especially Ran because they were close, they would have ended up together and now it's all a mess. A bloody one.

In the end she simply calls every single person she knows. Nobody picks up. Course not. Fate likes to screw her over and reminds her of the fact that she isn't that strong. That not everything is okay. That sometimes people just leave you.

In the evening, she throws her phone against the wall and panics an embarrassing long time because now she just might have lost the last thing connecting her to him. To everyone. The stupid thing still works, thanks heaven, but now the screen is a bit broken. How fitting she thinks before shoving it into the top drawer and goes back to the internet.

Tomorrow she will finish this. Because she's strong.

"Stay out of it." says the text she receives the next day from her brother. Not explanation, no greetings, just a simple sentence. He never told her to stay out of stuff. Mostly he just teased her about things that went wrong later. Never, ever did he told her what to do. Her first reaction is anger. How dare he? He doesn't even know her. She can look after herself. He hadn't even been in her life for the most part. So she deletes the message and waits for the victorious feeling to rise.

Half a second later, she regrets deleting the message. After all, it's the last thing. And if he tells her to stay out, than it's ugly stuff.

She buries her head in the pillow, because come on, what is she supposed to do? Leave it all? Leave Ran? Leave Shinichi? Just saying, nah too dangerous let's ignore it and move on to the sunshine and rainbows? She should leave it. Should be the good sister she's supposed to be.

It's getting dark outside, that kind of darkness that seems to slide slowly into your room and drowns it of every last ray of sunshine. It's a fascinating thing to watch, how drop after drop of light seems to disappear.

Like Shinichi. Like Conan. They will drown everything out of them, every last ray of hope and justice. They will do it slowly, like a poison that kills you day by day. She should really stay out of this, should really hold her head down. But at what price? They will put a bullet through her head anyway one day.

"Fuck it." She's not that kind of girl. She will not look away. She will stand by her friends, will fight if it get's seriously. Because they are not alone. And she also isn't.

A look at the clock confirms to her that it's almost 9 o'clock. If she runs, really runs, than she will be able to catch the bus. Sera stretches at allows her muscles to bend. She can do this.

"3." She grabs her jacket. "2" Her phone gets stuffed into her pocket. "1" She takes a deep breath before opening the door with a jerk and throwing it close behind her. She could feel the adrenaline beating in her veins while she races the clock down the stairs, while she runs through the streets, still full with everyday people. She nearly runs over an young man and stops for a second for apologizing.

She feels so goddamn alive.

The street she arrives is almost empty. The wind blows his cold breath against her skin and she's glade to pull the jacket around her.

Her scar itches again, but she barely pays notice to it.

"Hey Ran." The figure in front of her turns around slowly. Perfect timing. "Fancy meeting you here. Let's have a talk." Ran looks a weird kind of good. On one hand she could clearly see the lack of sleep and worry in her face but on the other side, there was a lack of damage. She still smiles even when it's a bit tighter.

"Sera, when did you came back?" Their arms brush at each other while they make their ways down the pavement. "Way too late." She could feel a traitorous burn in her throat. "And I'm sorry for that." Among other things. Among not telling you the truth because you should have been the first one to know. "Did you talk to the science girl?" She throws a look back at the house behind them. There's someone small standing by the window and watching them. She waves.

"Ai told me. It's funny how things click together once you start thinking about it more closely." She pauses. "I would make the worst detective in history." "I didn't told you anything. I'm the worst friend in the entire history." There are tears prickling in her eyes because maybe that's why people leave. Maybe she's just the worst human being.

Ran hugs her with both arms like you hug people that are falling apart. Sera hides her face inside of her blue jacket and silently sobs. Her scar hurts, no it burns. She has the feeling like suddenly the whole world around them burns.

"Nothing is okay." She chokes out. "I know." Ran whispers in a cold, very un-Ran voice. "But we will make it okay again Sera. And we will make them pay for it."

It's an unhealthy copping mechanism to hug broken people in the cold night and to plan revenge when you're barely legal. But it's Shinichi they're talking about. The boy she once called a magician. The one she saved. They will be fine.

"Let's kick their asses Ran. Let's burn them down."

* * *

So, this takes place before Kaito. If you want, then I will move it into the right place. But I was kinda scared that you would get the alert and then would be confused. Happy 2017! Yay, School.

Sincerely Anemonenfisch


	12. Hakuba

Normally, a small insane part of Hakuba's brain actually enjoys Kaito KID heists. It's a rather well kept secret of him, because god forbids if Kuroba finds out. He would totally never hear the end of it. Also, this part of his brain finally jumped over the cliff into insanity because how could a sane person enjoy getting covered in glitter and sleeping gas all the time? He was a detective but he was also a teenager. Clearly he had some screwed up priority problem because he never hesitates a second before jumping at a new heist note.

And even when he has a throbbing headache the next morning and feels more like someone run a truck over him, he still goes the next time.

But today he could barely keep his fingers from tapping a nervous rhythm against his leg. He switches most times between violin plays he knows and an annoying pop song he heard today at the radio. It always happens when he wants to bit his nails but Hakuba Saguru does not bit nails in front of a police division, so he's stuck with Bach's violin concert no. 2 repeating itself in his head. Something tells him that today would have been the day where he should have backed down. Just one time.

Because something isn't right.

Something is badly wrong because the air shifted. The air inside a police department is rather sensitive towards upsetting events. Hakuba knows that because he basically grew up with it. And he had seen a lot. Dead of innocent people, the panicking during a possible terror threat, the laughers in the evening, the tense silence when something's happening behind closed doors, the death of a colleague.

It all makes the air inside shift in a certain direction. And now the air is suffocating him. It's the way their boss closes his door behind a blond lady with a bit too much force. The way there suddenly seems to be a lot more officers switching divisions or working overtime. It's the way not even gossip forms around these incidents. It's in the way Nakamori looks at him with a soft edge and something that Hakuba just couldn't quite name. It's fear he suggests, or at least worry. Nakamori had never been worried about him before.

Kuroba stops dying his hair in different colors a day after that. To be exactly, Kuroba seemed to stop existing at that point. There's a huge crack in the normally cheerful mask and for the first time since Hakuba stepped into the class room, the magician didn't try to fix his appearance. And that was downright terrifying.

He throws a glance at his wristwatch and speeds the tipping a bit up because it's almost time. But he doesn't want it all to start. They aren't ready yet. Kuroba wasn't ready. In the morning he just wanted to step in front of his friend and shake him long enough to beat some sense into his head. The magician was broken, traumatized, falling into little pieces. He wasn't in the state to draw up a gigantic heist. And even if Hakuba doesn't want more than to just wipe that smug grin out of the others face, it wasn't supposed to be that way.

It wasn't supposed to happen with an invisible threat hanging over their heads like the sword of Damocles.

He can hear Nakamori telling orders into his radio, not yelling and that was just another piece that feels so wrong, telling his forces to watch out, to watch the other buildings. This isn't just about KID. For the first time it seems like it really isn't about that thief goofing around but these people that are hiding in the shadows. Hakuba presses his finger nails into his arm and leaves angry red marks. Von Goldberg is back in Japan, touring around the country with his show and for the first time Hakuba feels something close to fear.

He's not used to feeling scared. But it seems fitting for this whole façade. They're trying to keep something up, for the population, for the media, for god knows who, to fool them into believing that everything is normal.

"The stage is set, the curtain rises …" he mumbles softly to himself. And then the lights go out.

That's the thing that finally snaps him out of his state. Because it's too early. Just a second but it's too early and KID is always punctual.

"I don't know what's wrong with him Hakuba, but he's not the same. Aoko is worried." Aoko told him after one of their classes. She looked rather lost, fiddling with the hem of her skirt and being so unlike her old self.

He promised her that everything was okay. But it wasn't. Kaito makes mistakes. "Goddammit," Hakuba curses while he makes his way out of the exhibition room. He would never be able to catch KID there.

He can almost see a phantom figure in front of him, someone who realized a long time ago that in order to catch a thief you needed to get to the end. The kid would be a nice company. But then again then there would just be another person in the cross fire.

For some reasons he couldn't get ride of the shadow that runs in front of him. Small, so small and still something was wrong. The outlines were wrong, blurry to be exactly. He stops.

"That's a rather weird sense of humor you have today Spider." He wants to punch himself for his own idiocy. What was he thinking running all alone through a building that he knows will be filled to the rim with bad people? And of course Spider would be there. Because, why not? The universe seems to take great pleasure in taunting them these days.

How long is he under the influence? Is he still conscious? Or does he still stands in the exhibition room in front of the diamond, starring into space with empty eyes?

Carefully he turns around, letting his eyes sweep over the dark hallway. There are flashes of light falling through the small windows and he could see the familiar sparks of red and blue mixing into them.

Seems like he can still move even when his head feels kind of like someone gave him some painkillers. He thinks for a second about running down the hallway. The building is full of police officers, he would have a 82.6 % chance to meet someone in under one minute (including the fact that KID may have put like 20 of them to sleep already and that the others may or may not be stuck in some ridicules traps again) but then again, he doesn't want to give Spider anymore satisfaction. The man would have taken a great pleasure in hunting him down. So he stands stock still, eyes ranking over the shadows that are projected against the wall.

"You know, that's childish. What do we do? Play hide and seek?" He has the unnerving feeling that somehow, no matter what he does, he will lose. Hakuba despites that feeling. Where was the police or even that damn thief if you really need someone to make an entrance?

"Judging by the fact that you are still a kid Saguru, I would say that's rather fitting." The detective grits his teeth while turning around again. Maybe Von Goldberg is manipulating his vision. Just to make a dramatic entrance. Because he's even worse than KID when it comes to making a show.

But then he hears the familiar sound of boots and catches a glimpse of that ridiculous facemask.

"You want to tell me something with that little trick of yours?" Spider stops a few meters in front of him, blocking effectively the way back. He's smirking and Hakuba knows that this time he's the one that got trapped. What irony he thinks bitterly, normally he's the one who sets up the traps.

Von Goldberg puts a finger against his chin and seems to think out loud. "They didn't told you? What a shame, but after all what did I expect, you're just a teenager after all!" The chuckle sends shivers down his spine. Automatically he takes a step back, realizing just a second too late how he just let his façade crack.

The smirk grows, now splitting the face nearly in two and transforming Spider's features into something close to a predator. Hakuba suppresses the urge to rub his head. The illusion starts to mess with him for sure now.

"I just wanted to pay my credit to the brat you know? One last chase, one last heist, the kid would have totally appreciate it!"

Maybe trying to hit a famous illusionist, who works as a secret assassin and isn't quite known for his sense of humor or empathy, in the face isn't the best reaction Hakuba ever had, but he wouldn't regret it for a second. Not even when the man doges with embarrassing ease and hits him quite solid in the sternum.

He feels the breath that is knocked out of him, feels how suddenly his whole body is weirdly heavy and unmoving. The punch is a well aimed one, one that speaks of practice because it's just the right pressure to make him fall back a few steps without leaving any advantages to him.

His head is forced up with invisible strings pulling his neck upwards. He feels like a marionette. And this time he's sure, nobody will cut the strings.

Spider takes great satisfaction in unlocking the safety of his gun. He's not sure which caliber it is, but he's defiantly sure that it will be a mess if it's going to end between his eyes. Also he's connecting it already to two unsolved murders and a kidnapping because his brain is currently drowning in adrenalin and he can't get ride of it.

"We should make a national holiday out of this." Von Goldberg says, waving one hand and molding the shadows into a small figure. Hakuba can't tear his eyes away from how easy it seems to be, how easy his brain falls for such a simple trick.

"I believe you will have quite a nice chat with him wherever you go. Don't look so angry Saguru-chan, even your great Sherlock Holmes dies at some point." The shadow melts into a somehow familiar shape, almost the same height as himself.

"You know, to be exactly, you should see this as your own personal Reichsbachfall. Don't that make you happy?" Spider smiles at him and lifts the gun with ease. The detective doesn't look at him, too busy studying the shadow. Somewhere inside his head the wheels are turning.

"Say goodbye to this world, Hakuba Saguru."

Edogawa Conan was Kudo Shinichi. Uh, that's a rather intrigues way to spent your last breaths alive. To just stumble over another mystery. Must be his detective genes.

He expects the soft sound that not even the silencer could suffocate completely. Then the bullet would hit his head, he would not even feel anything. He kind of pities the owner of the museum. Getting blood from your walls could be a rather tricky business.

Instead he hears a surprised gasp. Followed by the thump of a human body meeting the polished marble floor.

"Sherlock quotes? And there I thought you where the biggest nerd in human history." Of course KID makes a dramatic entrance. Hakuba can feel his knees go weak for a second, an extremely annoying side effect of hypnosis and illusions in general.

"You turned off the lights too early. That was on purpose, wasn't it?" He carefully steps a few meters away from the body because there was the sudden urge to put distance between him and his would-be murderer. This hadn't been the closest call he ever had but for some reasons Spider managed to still crawl under his skin.

"Yep. Somehow I needed to lure them into security. But to be honest, I truly broke my heart to make a mistake, and after all such frivolous one. I believe Lupin's turning over in his grave at this moment." That just sounds like the old KID, like the old Kaito. Hakuba allows himself to release a shaky breath.

There's an awkward silence between them, eyes darting between the unconscious body on the ground and to both ends of the corridor.

"So, Conan-kun is Kudo-kun." "Spider really has not sense for keeping a secret, does he?" "It's just fitting all together now you know." "Near death experience seem to have a rather positive effect on your brain Tantei-san. Should I call a professional?" Hakuba tries to hit his asshole friend/rival in the chest but he's still feeling a bit off so he doesn't cause real harm.

"I was worried idiot. About you. Thought that your insanity finally decided to consume your mind. And now I'm announced that one of the biggest minds in Japan is dead …" "He's not dead." Kuroba snaps. "And I'm fine." he puts just a bit too much pressure on the last word to make him believable.

"Sure you are." It's way too easy to fall back into their roles. Into their banters. "Nakamori-san is worried about you. What were you thinking?" he hisses the last part between clenched teeth. Kuroba looks at him with something like regret.

"I'm not going to help you getting laid by my childhood friend. So you can stop acting like you really care." There's a bitter edge hidden beneath all the cheerfulness and fake carelessness. Maybe he really broke at some point, unseen and unnoticed by the world around him.

"That's not the goddamn point Kaito." It's a ridiculous thought that Nakamori-san would actually think about something like that.

"Then stop okay? This is far bigger and far more dangerous than anything you and I ever dealt with." Kuroba turns around, making is way up to the rooftop. "And what's about you? What happens if they shoot you the next time in the head instead of your chest?" He tries to not think about it too much. The same way he tries not to think too much about Conan being actually dead or something close to it.

"I'm not alone. So stay out of this and listen for once at me." There's no way that somewhere in the world somebody knows more than him about Spider and his ties. Why don't you asked me he wants to say but that sounds way too pathetic and broken for his own liking. Beside, they were never really honest about their emotions anyway.

"And if I don't? I just found out that there's something fishy going on. What do you expect me to do? Turn around and live happily ever after?" _'You're my friend damn it, why don't you told me anything? You really don't trust me at all Kuroba.'_

He tries not to feel too bitter about this realization. It was not something unexpected. Shacking of the uneasy feeling, he takes out a pair of handcuffs. "What happened to you?" he calls after his classmate. Suddenly he has the feeling that their bridges are burning down. That there will be a gap between them if he doesn't do something.

"They tried to kill him Hakuba."

He doesn't look at Kuroba for the next two days, too caught up in the case unfolding itself in front of him. With von Von Goldbergg out, the Organization loses a rather vulnerable part. Something like that always tends to have some kind of backlash. And he waits for it.

And he's certainly not sulking or anything, even when Akako shots him knowing looks that are hitting just a bit too close home. So apparently Kuroba trusted her but not him. Not a problem. He just digs the case Kudo up again because he doesn't like not knowing things. (And the disappearance of someone for two years, 7 months and 3 days is somehow rather intrigues.)

It's interesting, the way he starts to know a person just from papers. But then again, they met quite a few times, just that at this point the guy was actually 10 years younger and tried to hide behind a mask of childishness.

(Looking back, it all makes suddenly more sense. Why didn't he realized that the first time? Why had he been so blind when it came to the obviously unnatural high intelligence of the other? He starts to feel guilty without actually having any links to this case at all.)

There's a girl, vaguely reminding him of Aoko, standing in front of his flat. He blinks. Several times. Kuroba waves one of his folders behind her. One of those that are in his locker or in his room. He doesn't want to know how they got this.

"Hakuba-kun. I believe you remember me?" He does. Blurry but she shouldn't be here. Not with Kuroba. I'm not alone, he told Hakuba. For a moment he's even more worried. She's a civilian. How should she manage to help? "Mouri-san, wasn't it?" He simply can't believe this is happening. He can hear Bayaa shouting something about getting late for school. He tries not to be embarrassed about her, because he's a grown up man. He knows when school starts.

"You can call me Ran if you are comfortable with that. We met before. The first time I think was at the Mansion Murder Case." Kuroba disguised as her father he remembers. He had been surprised about their little companion. That memory makes something sharp twist in his stomach.

"As I see, you're quite interested in Shinichi. Kaito told me a lot about you." He throws a suspicious look at his friend. He could imagine what he told Mouri-san. "Not half the stuff is true." he says automatically and makes a step forward.

"Let's trade." She cocks her head in a seemingly innocent gesture. But her eyes are sharp in a terrifying way. "I tell you a bit about the mystery that is spreading through this town. And you're telling us a bit about your researches"

Conan was something else. He liked the little guy. Appreciated his sharp mind, the way his eyes sparkled when he found a clue. He would like to know the real one, the real Kudo Shinichi. And they took that from them and the world. Nobody should get away with doing something horrifying like that without facing consequences. He knows that they will not with the system running like this. Spider didn't for years.

"I have quite some valuable information about a certain underground organization that has set their greedy eyes on a legend." There's a rather huge folder inside his room, one that he may or may not started when they shot his friend, somebody he cared about. Mouri-san smiles with a soft curve of her lips. "I believe we can work with that."

* * *

Rockster: Thanks for helping me out and thanks for still having faith in me. I'm going to find a beta Reader or a website which will Point out my mistakes.

Sincerely Anemonenfisch


	13. Chikage

Chikage sometimes thinks about whether she had been a bad mother. Not on purpose, but rather because she never thought of herself as a good mother. Maybe she shouldn't have left her son alone all the time. Maybe she should have kept a closer eye on her husband. Maybe she shouldn't have broken away from the Kudo's after that horrendous incident.

She could have averted so much hurt from her son. The secrets would have never come into existence, the heartbreak would have been something that he might would have to experience with his first love, (did she also break that into pieces, the possibility of her little kid falling in love?) but not through the fear of losing everything that he held dear.

Maybe she should have pressed harder when she tried to convince her son into retirement. Maybe she should have become Kaito Kid instead.

It had been easier with Toichi around. Oh Toichi, she misses him so dearly every year. Her heart always clenches painfully when she sees Kaito, looking just so much like his father, with the same proud face and the same fascination for magic. She wishes that the man could share her joy over their son.

She breaks out of her thoughts when Yukiko puts a glass of wine in front of her.

"Here. You seem like you need one." Her friend looks stunning, with her brown hair falling in soft waves across her back. It always fascinated her how the woman in front of her, once a young girl walking around after her husband and asking for tips, could look utterly unaware when there's a storm forming around her.

Maybe that's the legacy you left, dear Toichi. Disguise your feelings, always keeping your poker face on. You taught her that well, even when her son was dying, she did not share a tear in my presence. _'What a cruel gift you gave her'_ , she thinks, while nipping at her glass. The wine is wonderful, the rich taste rolls over her tongue, and it would be so easy to simply look out of the window and enjoy the skyline of Paris without any thoughts about home. She always had a soft spot for this city.

Even when now is a grotesque time to meet in the city of love when your loved one is dying.

She studies the actress who takes a seat across the table. Does Yukiko sometimes wonder if she's a bad mother? Does she think about it now?

It had been a coincidence that she met the Kudo's in Paris. Yusako was running away from his editors, because he had failed to finish his book. Again. Back then, she had laughed about the haunted look he wore while the women walked through the boutiques. She missed them through the years, something that she hadn't realised until Yukiko had thrown her arms around her. It was almost like she had a bit of her old time back. That life when there had been a father at home and an innocent son.

Now, they're trapped inside this luxury apartment with no plan. A friend of Yusako's called him a week ago, a person somewhere deep inside the spider web that built around their son Kudo Shinichi.

She still remembers him, a bright-eyed child so much reminding her of her own son that she had barely resisted the temptation to call Kaito when Yukiko told her about the fate of her son at home. Just to hear his voice, just to be sure that she had not been left behind again.

But Kaito's alive and Shinichi isn't.

She isn't entirely sure why the Kudo's didn't take the first plane home. Maybe it was because they're safe here. Maybe it's because they don't want to face the reality. If they stay out of Japan, they could retain a certain distance towards this all.

Maybe they're simply cowards.

On the other hand, who was she to judge? She allows her son to break the law frequently.

"We're horrible parents, ne Yukiko?" Her lips twist upwards into an ugly smile. "Letting our kids fight wars when we are safely away."

"That's not true." Her opponent's voice is smooth and firm, not breaking in the slightest. She wants to throw her glass at her. To mess up her hair, to wash away the carefully applied makeup. To make this woman somewhat human.

"You're even worse than Toichi. At least he allowed a sign of love and care from time to time." The words are ugly, but she had never felt like she told the truth like today. It was the truth, after all. "You simply hide behind you're seemingly perfect family picture – but you're just as broken and messed up as the rest of us."

She triumphantly twists her head away. She's sure that these words strung. Through the window, she can make out the blurry outline of Yusako. He smokes. She's not sure if it's just a habit, or if he's at least showing some kind of reaction to this all. But she doesn't remember him to be such a heavy smoker.

"You're horrible when you're stressed, Chikage-kun." Yukiko flips her hair above her shoulder, but her eyes aren't as emotionless as her words try to pretend.

"You're losing your son, my dear. Sorry for thinking too much," Chikage shoots back.

Maybe now Yukiko starts to regret telling her this. But even the all-famous Kudo Yukiko sometimes needs someone that she can tell her secrets.

It had been a night just like this one, with wine and too little space to avoid each other when Yukiko had told her with a drunken voice about this organization and this poison. Chikage herself may also have told her about this diamond and this group of people that once managed to steal everything from her. It had been a seemingly equal trade of secrets, one bloodier and more gruesome than the other. Even when she's not sure exactly what motives her friend had that night, the relief of finally telling someone had been enough that time.

Maybe Yukiko really had needed someone to talk to. Or it had been the wine that made her spill all those secrets about her son not being her son anymore, and the shadows behind the family façade. Chikage should have picked up the clues way earlier, maybe even when Jii-san told her about the little detective her son had taken a liking to.

"You don't know what these people are capable of! We would be dead before crossing the border." Yukiko raises her voice a bit. She's not shouting, but almost. Chikage tries to suppress the twisting feeling inside her stomach. This is what she had wanted. Reaction. Humanity.

"Then why did you leave him behind? If they are so dangerous?"

"You left Kaito."

"Don't you dare to drag him into this mess. This is about YOUR SON." In the end, it's Chikage whose screaming. Not that she's really caring about it. "You left your own son vulnerable to a crime syndicate. And now we can do nothing against it. Do you even know if he's still alive? Do you even care about this?"

The glass shatters against the window panel, the red wine paints a beautiful picture on the floor. Almost like blood, she thinks, but then her stomach twists painfully and she has to turn away.

Yukiko is panting. She never thought that she would ever see the great actress pant. But right now, she's doing exactly that. She pants and trembles and suddenly she starts to cry loudly.

The tight knot inside Chikage's stomach loosens suddenly. She's not angry anymore. She should have never started to be angry. Maybe it had been the close space that they were trapped in. Maybe it had been her own guilt that started to strain her nerves. Maybe it had been simply because it wasn't supposed to end like this.

Her own wine slops dangerously close to the rim of her glass when she puts it down violently.

"I'm sorry." she whispers while hugging her friend. "I'm so sorry."

"He's just going to leave us. Just like Toichi left us." Yukiko sobs, and how had she ever thought that this woman was heartless? Her heart was broken into millions of little pieces, and it must have been almost impossible to keep up this cheerful face.

"And we didn't do anything, Chikage. We just let our child die." It sounds way more horrible out of the mouth of the mother than her own. Especially because they aren't spoken in rage, but rather in despair.

"He's not dead yet. It's not your fault." she wants to reply, but the words sound like a lie before they even leave her lips.

Instead, she presses the weeping woman a bit closer to her own chest and allows her own tears to fall. It's all the same again. They simply take away what we love, not fearing any consequences. It was unfair.

"Yes it is." Yukiko looks up at her with swollen eyes. Had she said that out loud? "It's utterly unfair that they are allowed to do this, Chikage. Why are the bad guys the ones that always get away?"

"Not this time." Yusaku had too much of a perfect timing to not have eavesdropped. His face is grim, but Chikage is sure that there's a traitorous wetness around his eyes. "Not this time."

Suddenly, they are an awkward pile of arms and tears and broken hearts.

But it's nice to not be alone anymore. This is different from the time that Toichi died. Back then she had been alone, too caught up in her own dolefulness and the attempt to keep a peaceful life for her son.

"Mouri-san called me. She will keep him safe." Yusako hugs his wife a bit tighter. "Another one caught up in this. But believe me; you don't want to argue with her about that. Not that I have the right to do that anyway." The last thing he said quietly, almost ashamed.

Chikage starts to like this person already.

"So, she keeps the inside safe and what are we supposed to do? Sit still and look pretty?" Yukiko wipes away the remains of her ruined make up and glares at her husband. "What are we supposed to do?"

Chikage feels the air shifting into the dangerous direction of helplessness. But not this time. She already went through this! She saw what this helplessness could do to you. And she doesn't want this to happen again.

She's the Phantom Lady, she will be damned if she allows them to take someone again without consequences. They may be good, but this group is better.

"She keeps Shinichi safe, Yukiko. And we keep them safe." She's not sure how or what exactly they will do, but suddenly she wants to do something, anything. No matter how reckless or stupid it may seem. There should be some things two famous actresses and a writer could do.

They could be deadlier than the best agents if they want.

"Everything is going to be okay. This time, we will not let them win."

* * *

A huge thanks goes to Disconsolate Mist. She read through all this stuff, fixed every mistake, and enabled me to somehow come up with this. So, she's the best.

Sincerely Anemonenfisch


	14. Vermouth

Vermouth never was one for sentimentality. She knows that sometimes things won't go the way she likes, so why waste time crying over spilt milk?

She perfected the way she plays her little soldiers, perfected every word that slips over her lips, every glance she gives and every movement she makes. Everything is calculated. She knows the odds in this business, but she has been in it far longer here than most, and she knows the rules. So, well, that one day, everyone will be forced to play by a new set of rules. Her rules.

That's her secret, her mantra that keeps her running. The trick is to firstly learn the rules, and then beat them all at their own game. For this, she gave everything. Her life, her name, her identity. She's no longer Sharon Vineyard, nor Chris Vineyard. All those small sacrifices she encountered on the road she chose a long time ago.

But even the almighty Vermouth can fall. When she's not entirely sure, when she starts to stumble. Maybe befriending Kudo Yukiko was the first mistake she made. The Kudo's seemed to have a bad impact on her life in general, she muses, while brushing a loose strand of black hair behind her ear. The latex is comfortable on her skin. Most people would complain about masks, how they made your face itch and how they made it hard to breathe sometimes, especially full-face ones. But she's here for business and there is no room for doubt or complaint. Also, she enjoys the way the thin material allows her to be someone else, someone new, just under the nose of all these nosy people in such an easy way. Due to years of training and gaining perfection in almost every aspect, there was no imposer better than Vermouth.

"Doctor, the patient will get his check up in about 10 minutes!" the nurse (Li Anzu, 29, left handed, has a crush on the assistant medical director according to gossip, this woman was just a bit too stereotypical to not be suspicious and in conclusion, either FBI, CIA or TPD) tells her.

Vermouth smiles at her in a tired way that speaks of many overtimes and not enough coffee. Her alibi (Akiba Sora, 51, the kind of man you picture if you hear the word Doctor, one that gives candy to little children) is that kind of man who would smile that way at the end of a long day.

The police would find him someday, he may remember one or two things about his attacker, but it really was none of her business. She did not risk her neck to worry about doctors.

"Thank you, Li-san." The eyes narrow a bit when she walks away while pretending to read through a medical report. She gives herself at least eight Minutes before the army in blue will bark in. For a second, she thinks about turning around and smirking. It's an old reflex, the one that shows her enemies just how incompetent they really were. But then, she would have a gun pointed at her way too early and she will have enough time to taunt her beloved crime institutions after this, after she made it through this visit. Now, her time is too precious to waste it with teasing.

So, she innocently makes her way to the elevators and pretends to read through the medical report that was handed to her. According to this, her patient is a routine checkup. He wouldn't survive if the doctor stayed away for one day.

Suddenly, the doors open, and she comes face to face with a young girl. For a second, she forgets how to breathe. Mouri hadn't been part of her plan when she decided to sneak into the hospital. But here she was, looking Vermouth straight in the eye.

Vermouth never cared before if one of her chess pieces broke or got killed. She could simply find another one, one that would replace the fool that just couldn't keep up with the game. Now, she's about to do something very, very stupid. Normally, she should be long gone. The girl in front of her, that is. This place had become way too dangerous for both of them.

For a second, she's afraid that the confusion is displayed on her face, but then Mouri walks past her as if she didn't see the man in front of her.

Maybe she didn't. Mourning has an interesting effect on the human perception. At least she's here. It makes an unfamiliar knot in her stomach loosen that at least her Cool Guy isn't alone.

The doors close with a soft ping. The nurse has stopped looking at her. This confirms to Vermouth that she at least has time until her alleged patient will ruin everything. But she can deal with that. She has a plan.

She's all by herself again. The mirror on one side of the cabin shows her the figure of a middle aged man, a bit short and a bit fat, but overall a likable character, his hair starts to get grey at his temples. It's easy to slip into new identities if you don't have one yourself. It reminds her of Kuroba.

Hastily she turns her eyes away. She didn't thought about Kuroba for years, even with his son stealing in the moonlight. It's not her area not run after a legendary jewel, but over the years you learn to be at least a bit informed about basically everything. Still, she stayed away from it.

It wasn't because of loyalty or sentimentality, because Vermouth lost those feelings a long time ago (no, she hadn't lost them, she had thrown them away because they were useless little things). She wasn't interested in immortality. Not when it involved a myth and some fancy stone. What she's after is something based on facts and guinea pigs.

The floor that opens in front of her is deserted. Not a big surprise, because it's the floor that Kudo Shinichi is on. She bets every nurse or doctor needs to at least pass three background checks to make it to this floor. Not that this could stop them. If they would just catch the smallest amount of information on Kudo Shinichi, they would tear the whole building down instead of trying to sneak in through the staff. Or they would do both, just to be careful.

But it was heart-warming to see them at least trying to secure their little treasure. Two years too late, and totally unnecessary, but heart-warming.

She holds up her ID in order to pass the guard, and then steps into the room next to her little guy. The inhabitant is an old lady with a broken leg.

Vermouth almost feels something close to remorse when she increases the dosage of painkillers in order to silence the woman, but she's sure that the lady will survive it. Still she checks her pulse two times to be sure. Maybe the small distance towards the detective makes her soft and awakes some of her humanity that she buried a long time ago.

There's a door between this room and the next one, hidden behind a closet and wallpaper.

"You're making me put way too much effort into this, you know." she chuckles, while dragging the closet away from the wall, and starts to rip the ugly white wallpaper off, speaking to the boy behind the wall. "I blackmailed at least three people to get this far. What are you doing to me, Cool Guy?"

The door is locked, but she tricks locks with the same ease as she does with people.

The smell of disinfectant mingles with the one of roses. The room is plain. One bed, a window with a view across the backyard of the hospital, the white visitor chairs, and Kudo Shinichi the only things filling the mostly empty space.

Vermouth takes a second to take everything in. She's now sure that this will be a trap. How could she be that ignorant? Being able to sneak past so much security and not even a single guard inside the room? Honestly, they could have been more subtle. The window is too high for jumping, her only chance is turning around now and hoping that she would be able to make it out of the hospital before every single alarm went off. Maybe if she turned around now, the guard wouldn't even be suspicious about the doctor passing him.

She lets one of her fingers travel along his features. Young and hurt. At least they allowed him his old body back.

Surely not out of generosity. Maybe it had been some sick part of the game to finally let the boy reach his goal of becoming himself again. The air that rushes through her nose feels thin and suffocating.

He must have screamed, not only when his bones and skin stretched involuntary but also when Gin decided to have fun. She tries not to think about it, the way her body felt when she swallowed the pill back then. At least she did it voluntarily. Another sacrifice for her goal.

She hears the ticking of the clock like drums in her ear. The countdown towards the end. Which end, though? Her own? Or rather the one of the detective?

They will hunt him down as soon as he shows his face. They are powerful, even if the police tries to find them, they are too deep in the system to simply be ripped out.

Vermouth never hesitated to abandon one of her soldiers. She remembers the time she burned down a house and orphaned a young girl to protect herself. She was not the person to visit hospital beds and walk into traps.

"You're making me erratic darling, how mean of you." She rips the mask of her face, because now it feels no longer like a shield and more like a stranglehold. The boy doesn't stir. Instead, the door opens. Vermouth feels the twitch of her fingers, threatening to grip the cannula and put him to sleep forever. Maybe that would even be mercy for him. She's sure that there are people out there who would be way more creative when it came to getting rid of a detective.

"You must be Vermouth."

She throws her long hair over her shoulder and lifts an eyebrow.

"Angel, what a surprise. Thought I just saw you leaving." The girl across the room crosses her arms and doesn't say a word. Does she remember that Vermouth almost shot her while hunting down Sherry? Does she remember the rescue? Does she regret it?

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but you know, business is cruel these days." The bed is still between them, but Vermouth has seen Angel pulling of crazier stunts than jumping over a bed.

"What are you planning to do now, Vermouth?" Her questions are too cold and calculated for the normally calm and sweet girl. So uncharacteristic. She allows her lips to curl into a smirk.

"Why so cold Angel?" Mouri doesn't react to the tease, instead her eyes dart between Vermouth and her friend. Would she actually hurt her if she makes a move towards her childhood friend? It's an interesting idea, but Vermouth isn't in the mood for fights.

"Outside of this room are enough officers to arrest you. What are you planning?" Vermouth studies her features. She didn't sleep well, the bags are dark and deep. But she doesn't carry the weight of mourning with her. Behind her eyes burns a fire Vermouth just knows too well. "Revenge, Angel? That's a bit too much for a Japanese school girl don't you think?" She curses internally. Another one that wants to get tangled up in this mess. She already has a dying silver bullet, she doesn't need a misguided girl around her as well.

"You're not answering my questions Vermouth? Your plan." She could scare people like that, with her straight posture and the way her eyes are colder than the one's of her childhood friend ever were. But Vermouth was not an ordinary person.

"They are demons, Ran. Bloody, cruel, and capable of everything." She allows one of her finger to travel along Kudo's throat. "They would simply cut it open, making you watch while he bleeds out." Mockingly she presses a kiss against the vulnerable skin. Ran watches her, fist tight, knuckles white. "And they will laugh, Angel. The most cold and heartless sound you will ever hear." Ran flinches, just a little bit.

She managed to get under her skin, though. Vermouth doesn't feel triumphant.

The lipstick is bright and red against the pale skin, and Vermouth needs to look away for a second to not compare the mark to actual blood. She mind played herself, that's new and scary.

"I won't let that happen," her beautiful angel replies, but her eyes are too wide and her fists to tight. She surely did not think about this as a game. But Vermouth knows how to use words as weapons to paint the most grotesque pictures in other people's minds.

"Demons, darling. They don't care what you do." They will just break her wings and steal the most meaning things from her, just in the blink of an eye without Ran noticing. The Organisation is good at this, at the destruction of lives. "I wouldn't do this if I was you. He isn't worth it."

"Don't tell me what his worth is!" Ran doesn't scream, but her voice is raised. "He's worth more than hundreds of you and your shadow friends. And I will bring every single one of you down." She almost snarls, with her lips twisted into an ugly form and it looks quite like she wants to rip Vermouths throat out.

There's a folder between all the medical reports. Almost invisible and unsuspicious. It's the darkest and deepest secret Vermouth could dig out. It's her insurance against silver snipers and suspicious accidents.

But it isn't an insurance against Mouri Ran.

She sighs, because when did her life become this complicated? Since when does she care about her toys? Gin would laugh when he finds out that children managed to ruin the cold hearted Chris Vineyard, the ruthless Vermouth.

The girl regains her composure again, leaning backwards on her heels without breaking eye contact. How much would she be willingly to sacrifice for this information? Vermouth feels a mixture of fear and curiosity. How long until she will be a mirror of Vermouth?

She walks a dangerously thin line, one wrong step and she will fall down into the void.

"I will find every single one of them. After all, Demons are just fallen Angels." She smiles a cold smile that reminds Vermouth too much of her own, and even Gin's.

She wouldn't allow them to ruin something like this. Neither her Silver Bullet nor her Angel.

Her fingers dig slightly into the brown paper of the folder while she passes Shinichi.

"Don't be dramatic Angel, you have enough Demons to burn them down."

* * *

Love goes out to Disconsolate Mist. I love you, and your criticism and the time you waste on this Piece of shit I produce. So your thanks should go out to her, because there where a thrillion mistakes in this and now it is finally readable.

Please comment and feel free to criticise

Sincerely Anemonenfisch


	15. Shinichi

Shinichi wakes up alone. For a moment, he's confused. There's a nagging voice inside his brain, almost drowned by the fuzzy feeling that was occurring from an infusion that is connected to his arm. This voice tells him that he shouldn't – couldn't – be alive.

It feels nothing like when the poison circulated through his body. Back then, he felt normal, after the burning pain of the shrinking process has passed. He did not even noticed the change until he had been discovered by the police officer and looked into the glass window. He still remembers how his body froze when the face he had seen reflected back at him was too young.

Now he feels hollow, empty. No, rather he felt freezing, and his mind doesn't didn't run through possibilities nor explanations for the situation as it usually would. Shinichi's was left just staring blankly at the white ceiling.

He had cheated death again, somehow. But, he doesn't feel relief. He knows that he should thank whatever higher power watched over him, and seemingly vehemently tries to keep him alive. Yet he wishes to be dead.

Ran hates him. Gin's going to find out that Shinichi is alive and will hunt him down again. Now with even more burning ambition. It's going to start all over again. And now he can't count on anyone.

He had managed to paint an even bigger target on his back. And he looks like himself again. He tries to laugh, but nothing more than a suffocated chock comes out.

The final antidote. Haibara finally made it, and he can't even thank her properly now. Because he will not be able to contact or see her anytime soon. Gin would happily rip anyone apart, whoever the person is and no matter what it was that connected them to Shinichi him. Especially if it was Sherry, who was now Haibara. Even the thought makes him sick. They never talked about her time inside the BO, but he doesn't need to hear her story. He's a clever boy after all, and he knows how to read people, even difficult ones like Haibara Ai.

Shinichi closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. It's a bit hard, because his chest feels too tight, and he concludes that he may have broken ribs, or at least ones that are healing from the process of being broken. Some time must have passed, he thinks, before it hits him.

How long had he been unconscious? Now, his mind fully goes into panic. One day? A week? Everyday he hadn't been awake was one day that he endangered people. He wants to scream or to break something into tiny pieces, because the history repeats itself. He's just as stupid as he had been two years ago.

And he's is alone again. Ran will never talk to him again, she made that clear that night. And he can't even blame her. She's right. He's the most selfish person in the world, and he drags everyone with him. Haibara, Heiji, and even Kaito KID somehow got tangled up in this mess that surrounds him.

He should have stayed alone. He should have been more vigorously resolute with his decision to be Conan, and only Conan. But it had been so hard to be alone. The thought about having someone that could see the real him, not the child that he pretended to be, had been a hard temptation to turn away from.

He must disappear again, and hopefully they will take the necessary hint to stay low. This time, nobody will be in danger. He had called Akai before this whole mess. At least, this time, he had done something in order to save his friends.

His limbs protest as he tries to sit up. His ribs hurt. The painkillers are working, but his body is still increasingly sensitive towards medicine, another gift from the poison. At least his body doesn't feel like that night again.

Gin's standing over him, grinning. The way the gun had gleamed in the pale moonlight. The loud sound of his own breathing, because his body still had been too weak to fully function like one of a normal teenager. The cold voice that whispers; "I'm going to get every single bit information out of you, and then I'm going to tear everything down. Nobody's going to find you, detective, and even if they do, there will be nobody left who will cry over your dead corpse", while Shinichi tries his best to grit his teeth.

The heart monitor gives its warning of a panic attack through a loud and piercing piep. It's hurting his ears, but also brings him back into the present. He's alive, not dying on the cold ground inside an abandoned warehouse. Gin's not here, or rather, not at the moment. But he will be soon, here if Shinichi doesn't do something.

As people say; three's is the charm, and Shinichi will not test his rotten luck again.  
But as he drags himself into a sitting position, as well as his current situation allows him, the door opens.

He imagines everyone, from a nurse to an assassin, but as he slowly turns his head with a deep breath, he's proven wrong.

"Ran," he breaths out, and want to bite his tongue the next second. He had lost the right to call her Ran. He even lost the right to be in the same room with her. He lost so much when it comes to Mouri Ran, his ex-childhood friend, former love interest, and loving sister.

It doesn't make sense. Why would she be here? She hates him, and even while time may have passed, and she may have somehow made her peace with all of this, he doesn't have a place in her life.

"You're awake," she says, and she smiles at him, reminding him a lot of easier times. Maybe he died, or he's hallucinating, because Ran will never smile at him that way again.  
She knits her brows while looking over him like a nurse. Or a worried sister. He feels a pang inside his chest. "What do you think you're doing? Lay down, for god's sake. You're hurt, Shinichi, and I know that somehow your brain doesn't understand the basics of taking care of your body, but you were just half dead." Her voice is strong, not breaking in the slightest while she pushes him gently downwards. He notices that she's avoiding some areas on his chest, which implies that she knows where he's is body is hurt. But why?

"What are you doing here?" he asks her, while trying to get used to the itching inside his throat. This feeling occurs mainly from not speaking a lot in recent time, he concludes. How long, though?

"I'm stopping you from doing something stupid," Ran, no, Mouri-san, replies.

"You shouldn't. I'm not worth it." He tries not to think about her tears, or the way it felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest, as he watches her, because he had been the reason for her despair. And he had been the target of her anger. It had been only fair, after all the things that he put her through.

Her blue eyes are focused on him, and he notices the bags under her eyes and the way her cheekbones are more visible. She hadn't been eating enough recently. She doesn't sleep enough, either.

"I did it again," he whispers, while breaking eye contact. "Why do you do this to yourself, Mouri-san?" Her name feels foreign inside his mouth, because Mouri-san never existed for him. It had always been Ran.

"Why are you calling me Mouri-san?"

"Because I have lost the right to call you otherwise." Maybe he should try to talk to her again, but why? He understands her, he can follow her way of thinking, her emotions and reactions on that night were justified and comprehensible. Also, he's too cowardly a person to have this conversation again.

She straightens herself and there's a gleam of something – anger? discontent? objection? – inside her eyes. Her fingers curl around the blanket, and when she speaks, Shinichi could hear a faint trembling inside her voice.

"Then I also lost the right to call you anything else than Kudo-kun."

"But it wasn't your fault. Your reaction was justified. You're right, R-Mouri-san. I was selfish, and nothing good can happens when you care for someone like me." He wants to grab her, to shake her and to allow her to leave him behind. He always brings sadness and pain. Nobody manages to stay close to a person like him. Nobody should be forced to manage a relationship with him because of guilt. "You're not guilty in any way. This is my fault, and my case to deal with." So please leave me behind, he wants to say, but the words are stuck inside his throat. Deep down, he doesn't want her to leave. Because she's his best friend.

But, those are selfish thoughts, and should not cloud anyone's decision. He put her through enough. He will not repeat the same game again. Especially because now he won't be able to be close to her ever again. Without Conan, he has no way to stay in Tokyo, or even Japan.

Somehow, he imagined all of this would have been easier if he became Kudo Shinichi again.  
"You're an idiot, Shinichi," she whispers while staring at some point outside the window. The sky's a deep blue color, and he faintly starts to think again about how much time has passed.  
"I'm not guilty? I said things to you, awful things that I will never repeat again. I was so angry at you that I lost myself in that anger without trying to find out more about the why. Why did you thought it was necessary to lie to me? Your closest friend?" She pauses, and Shinichi wants to object, because the reason had been stupid if you were looking back.

But she's faster and now. Before he knows it, she's looking him straight in the eye, and her expression is weird. An strange mixture of hurt, anger, and love.

"I never thought for a second about how it must have been for you. The lies, the hiding, the fear. All of this must have taken a toll on you. You're not invincible, even if you try to convince everyone, including yourself, that you are. And I thought about what exactly you tried to protect me from." She smiles, a sad smile. "The Black Organization."

Shinichi digs his fingers into the blanket, and tries his best not to breathe too fast. He instead focuses on the flowers beside his bed. He never was so thankful of brightly coloured roses. They remind him of KID. Hopefully at least one of them would actually make it back to their real life, he thinks, before reminding himself that even if KID manages to do so, Shinichi will never know. Because he isn't part of KID's life either.

"That's not something you should look into, Mouri-san." He knows that the best, after all, he had some first-hand experience about messing with their business.

Mouri-san exhales, and looks impatient for a second, before her features smooth back into her understanding expression.

"I did, Shinichi, and I would do it anytime again."

"Why?"

"I know that you're under the impression of needing to do everything on your own. But you don't. I'm here, and you're important to me. I know that I didn't leave you with the impression of this on that night, but I care about you. And other people do, too."

She grins at him, before continuing, "I mean, you made some awesome friends. Kaitou KID? Honestly, Shinichi, I would have never expected you to befriend a thief. Or Haibara, or Shuichi. I only don't know what to think of Amuro, or whoever he is, and Vermouth …," she trails off, and Shinichi feels like his lungs are too small to support his body.

"They shouldn't get involved. Ran, what have you done?" It comes out a bit more horrified and judging than he intended, but Mouri-san doesn't flinch. He desperately tries not to think of Irish or Akemi, or the sound of a piano playing while a house burns down. Nothing good happens to people that save him. He tries not to think about all the blood that Sera had bled while she had shielded him from the sniper.

"Because it's our turn to protect you. Because you're important to all of us. Because neither you, nor I, have been entirely right in our ways we handled this situation. And because I didn't want you to be afraid when you wake up.

"But …," he wants to interject, but she holds up a hand.

"Every one of us considered the danger. This is not a game to us, Shinichi. But we decided that you were worth it. That living in a safe world was something you deserved."

His eyes burn and he allows the tears to fall freely. Later, he could blame it on the medicine messing with his hormones or something like that. But for the moment, he will just allow himself to cry.

Ran, because she still allows him to call her that even after everything and how he missed her so, so much, hugs him without pressing too hard against the still sore areas.  
"We love you, Shinichi. You're not alone, and this time, we want to welcome you to a perfect world."

He wants to never let go of her, fearing that this sense of home and stability she gives him will simply disappear, and he will be left with nothing but his loneliness inside this room. Yet the door opens again, and this time he's greeted with the unfamiliar face of a young teenager.

"Ran! I thought you promised to contact us all immediately if Sleeping Beauty decided to wake up!" It's a boy, around the same age as them, looking a lot like Shinichi, if the teen detective would have messy hair that somehow defied gravity.

"Kaito, you ruined our moment!" Ran laughs, and Shinichi tries to somehow dry his tears, because there's a difference in crying in front of your sister in anything but blood, and a stranger that reminds him of KID.

And it clicks.

"So that's how you look without the monocle and your stupid costume," he says, more to himself than any specific person in the room.

"Kuroba Kaito, magician extraordinaire, at your service," KID, no, Kuroba, exclaims while evoking a bunch of doves from who-knows-where. "Nice to meet you too, Kudo Shinichi. Without masks, at least. Seems like we finally got our lives back, ne, Tantei-kun?"

"Seems so," Shinichi replies.

"And now, I'm going to excuse myself, because I'm going to be a good friend. Nothing like this moron, Mouri Ran, who should have contacted the others to tell them you're back." And with that, Kuroba bows one last time, and then disappears inside a cloud of white smoke.

"How did he manage to keep his identity hidden? He's Kaito KID with every vibe of his body," Shinichi laughs, but ends up choking because his body's is still not ready for the level of excitement that Kuroba seems to carry around.

"A magician never reveals his tricks," echoes from the doorway, before the two teenagers are all by themselves again.

"What have you done, Ran," Shinichi asks again after some time. It's not about the people anymore, and they both know it. It's about the takedown.

"Everything you would have done, too," Ran replies, and presses a kiss to his forehead before standing up. "I must leave for a second or two, I need to coordinate the flood of people that'll want to see you."

Shinichi watches her, trying to piece together the events of these past months -weeks?- that lead to this outcome.

"Don't worry too much about our methods. They are behind bars. We won." She smiles, one hand on the doorway and she reminds him so much of the old Ran, but also, she's so much different. He had always been scared that he may have ruined something inside her. That she would never be able to recover from the distrust and the lies that had been around him all the time. But she didn't brake. She managed to become someone else, someone that had been powerful enough to survive this all.

"You didn't have to do this," he replies, watching how her face grows dark.

"Yes, I did, I already did, and I'm not regretting any moment of these past months." She's definitely a new Ran, a stronger, but also less naïve Ran. She grew up a lot, and Shinichi hopes that she wasn't forced to do it too fast.

"I want you to always remember that, from now on, there are people who will have your back, Shinichi. And I'm going to be one of them. Without ever thinking twice."

* * *

A.N. I super, super thankfull for my beat Disconsolate Mist. Let's all hold our breath for a Minute and thank this wonderfull Person to make this all somehow readable. I also don't plan to stop the history at this Point. The main Story is somehow finished, but stay excited for some more chapters. When I finished them. Which may take a while. But hey, I have Holidays! Wish you all an amazing summer from Germany.

Sincerely Anemonenfisch


	16. Perfect World

The sun shines brightly from the sky, painting the snowy landscape in Tokyo in a light that makes it look like a scene from a fairytale. The air in front of the people appears in white, soft clouds. Shinichi feels the small, but surprisingly strong tug at his jacket.

"Shinichi-niisan, you will love this," Ayumi tells him while dragging him along.

Shinichi still tries to explain to himself how he got himself into this. He'd never been a really social person, as pointed out by Sonoko quiet a few times. And now he's here. It's strange for him, moving through the city and being able to see more than the legs of people.

"Slow down Ayumi-can" he laughs but the girl just throws a look at him. She definitely picked that up from Haibara.

"Just hurry up old man, otherwise we will miss the others."

And the comebacks, she definitely took that up from her weird companionship. Hopefully, he didn't ruin any further social development of these kids, with role models like him and Haibara, they will mostly end up as lonely wolfs.

Just that they aren't really lonely wolfs. Not anymore. Shinichi never thought that nobody cared about him. He simply assumed that most of his friendships were somehow shallow. But they cared, in a deep way that he never allowed himself to even imagine.

"Oi, look, there's Kaito-san," Ayumi calls out and waves euphorically at a young boy that jogs in their direction.

"Greetings to both of you," Koruba says and offers Ayumi a rose which he conjures up with the flicker of his hand. Ayumi smiles but still she eyes it critically. Shinichi knows that she desperately wants to figure out the trick behind this simple miracle. He hides a smile.

Seems like she will not grow out of being a detective so fast.

Koruba puts an arm around the older boy and smirks at him with such an amount of mischief in it that Shinichi lifts a brow. Something happened to but the magician in such an exaggerated good mood. And Shinichi still debates if this is a good thing for his personal health.

"What did you do?" He asks.

"Oh Tantei-kun, such a curious little creature you are," answers Koruba, with way too much joy. He still likes to highlight the past. Shinichi stopped protesting or falling for the bait a long time ago.

"Did something happen to Hakuba?" He decides to ask. The British boy is still one of Korubas favourite victims when it comes to pranks or humiliation in general. Shinichi assumes that this is how their friendship works. With Koruba laughing and Hakuba cursing.

"Nope, why do you always assume that my dear Holmes? What did I do to be under such a suspicion?"

"You're too happy," Shinichi answers while searching the crowd for his other friends. It's still weird to actually have more friends than Ran. Even Sonoko is surprisingly nice, they still have their fights and still bicker but maybe they have the same chemical reaction like Koruba and Hakuba. And somehow all four of them manage to still not kill each other. Their whole group somehow managed to not break apart. It's something like the eighth wonder of the world.

Because it shouldn't work. You have two agents of different departments who can't stand each other for most of the time, a bureau and a police station which relationship is still strained, a scientist who is officially dead, a few detectives, a thief, Sonoko, Akako, a karate champion and a bunch of kids. And Vermouth. Who is currently hiding but still sends postcards from all over the world.

And they stick together. Somehow.

Shinichi suspects that it's Ran that holds them together, who hovers over them all with a stern look that says 'behave or else'. Or maybe it's also their loneliness.

"Akako told me today in school that Lucifer said 'Hell is calm and black is falling', and I'm assuming that's good. Or maybe she just likes to mess with me," Koruba lowers his voice and suddenly his eyes are very distant. That's something Shinichi still isn't used to.

They are a team, all of them somehow worked at least one time somewhere together. He still feels sometimes like an outsider, when they all seem to work alongside each other in perfection. He still looks suspicious at Kazumi-san when she tells them that Lucifer talked to her while the others just lift a brow and look at each other. It's something they share with each other, he isn't included in this.

"Hmm," he mumbles while blowing out a puff of white smoke. The sky above them is blue, a brilliant, cloudless blue that reminds him of a window in a hospital room.

4 months. Sometimes it feels like a lifetime.

"Shinichi-niisan," Ayumi looks at him with big eyes. He forces a smile. Now isn't really the time to think about things like this. Not when he should be excited.

He can feel Korubas eyes on his back as he and Ayumi leave the other behind in favour of a big shop window.

"This is so cool," Ayumi says while pointing excitedly at some merchandise.

"You're still a fan of Yaiba?" He remembers watching the series with them and getting dragged to the cinema.

"Of course Shinich-niisan! It's the best thing in the world" she throws a sly glance his way "aside from being a detective of course."

Shinichi hums in agreement.

"Look, there are the others," without waiting the girl runs towards a shopping mall, disappearing into the crowd. Shinichi can see his friends in the distance.

"Are you feeling alright?" Shinichi tries not to jump. Koruba, most likely as a side effect of being a thief, mastered the skill of moving almost soundless.

"I'm okay," tries the detective to end the conversation. Koruba doesn't seem to buy it.

"I'm just nostalgic okay? And with all of you guys …" I'm not sure how I'm supposed to act, you have so much history and I'm just me, he adds in his head.

"Sure" Koruba draws out the word to tell Shinichi that he doesn't believe one word the other said.

"You just all seem to be so close," he mumbles, hiding most of his face in his scarf. It's stupid, all of this. Being jealous of a relationship. That's pitiful.

Koruba looks at him elusively. Shinichi wants to throw his head back and groan in frustration.

"I know it's stupid. Don't mind me. I'm just not in a good mood today."

He walks faster, feeling the need to reach the mall and put an end to this conversation.

"Hey Shinichi," Koruba stands behind him, arms crossed. "You know that without you we all would still live our miserable lives? Which, as I can tell you from first-hand experience, would be awful. I would still hide and lose myself piece by piece Haibara would be god knows where probably dead. The BO would be free to do whatever they want. Akai would do something reckless and stupid. Furuya would probably be on the bad side or something. The world would be pretty dark and cold without you detective."

Koruba throws himself at Shinichi, tugging him in a bone-crushing hug.

"So never doubt your importance for us."

"Hey, what are you two doing? Making us wait in this freezing air is cruel!" calls Ran out to them. Both of them turn their heads at her in the same moment.

"Oh, Shinichi had an existential crisis about his importance to the world. I told him he's an idiot," Koruba smiles a shit eating smile at Shinichi and the detective tries, unsuccessful, to hit the thief.

Ran laughs, a clear, joyful laugh that makes her look so much younger.

"Then everything is fine."

She wraps an arm around the other shoulder of Shinichi and the three make their way across the road.

The sky is bright, the world hiding under a pure sheet and Shinichi laughs alongside his friends as he walks through Tokyo.

You could say that at this moment, the world was perfect.

* * *

You see the sap dripping from this? Yes, I do so too. Also, this chapter sadly isn't betaed. I just hunted down supid mistakes with an Internet site. Disconsolate Mist is not available at the Moment. But I wrote her a PM, which she will hopefully responed to in the future. And then I decided to give this website a shot. It's propably still terrible. But this is the end. To all of you, who wrote comments, forgave me for my terrible attempt on the english language and weird update Dates, let me hug you through the Screen. I hope that I will be able to once again capture in my next stories! Until then, farewell!

Sincerely

Anemonenfisch


	17. Broken World

Warning! You're about to enter a very unhappy place. There's blood and torture and questionable morals. You don't want to read it? That's fine, just reread the happy stuff I wrote! (I just couldn't resist the possible ways everything could have gone down the wrong road!)

* * *

Her shoes make a harsh sound on the ground. Normally she wouldn't bother to wear high heels, but today was special. Today they got a new packet. And she decided to wear appropriate clothes for this special visit.

Ran slowly drags her hands down the blazer she wears.

Kaito crosses her path. He looks worn out. His eyes search hers and she nods. It's true she tells him without words, this time we have him. The former magician manages a smile. It's cracked and ugly and Ran thinks for a moment, that nobody really smiles anymore in here. Maybe it had been the trade for all of this, the building, the floors, the network.

She, however, doesn't miss her smile, while she studies her appearance in a small hand mirror. Her short hair gives her strict look, her black trousers go well with the white shirt and the black blazer. She looks like she wants to. Good, victorious, unbreakable.

"Come with me," she says to her friend, the one that became a close call to Shinichi but didn't manage to fill out the spot exactly. She believes that the feeling of not being enough to fill out this ugly hole goes both ways. They are close, but not that way.

She closes her eyes and allows her mind to wander through these past years. They are at war. Sometimes she loses the focus on whether they are gaining ground or if their enemies managed to. On some days, it hardly matters to her. Today will not be such a day. Today is a victory.

They walk in lockstep. She looks at him. She searches for that young boy she once looked at.

"We changed," she whispers. The hallway is empty, the grey walls are meaningless. And still, she isn't sure if she wants to leave this building. It was a part of her.

"Its worth it Ran," Kaito answers but there's no faith in his words. But they are still moving forward.

A mob of red hair appears in a doorframe. Ai looks at her and Ran asks herself if the younger girl sometimes looks in the mirror and thinks that she's Sherry all over again. But there's no regret in the eyes of the other.

All three of them gather around the doorframe. They were the beginning, the three first people that decided to do something. For Shinichi. For the world. It's only fitting that they are doing the next step together.

"No word from Vermouth so far," Ai tells them. Ran suppresses the urge to smoke. It's an annoying habit and in cynical moments she thinks that it was about damn time that she developed an addiction on her one. Kind of runs in the blood she reminds herself.

"The last time I heard from her was 3 hours ago. She even gave me a last goodbye note. Goddamn actress, always so dramatic," snorts Ai, doing her best to sound nonchalant. But there's a hint of emotion inside these words.

Ran tightens her back.

"How many goodbye notes we have from her until today?" Kaito asks while rolling his eyes. "That woman just wants to make sure that when she bits the dust, her ending will be epic. I bet that in 6 hours she will tell us about how she escaped her fate again."

His humour is darker now, sharper but Ran likes it that way and so does Ai. So they laugh, even when they don't really mean it and the sound is strange and foreign to their vocal cords. Nobody laughs in this building. Ran's not even sure if nowadays the world laughs in general.

The war is still raging and with it, death still spreads across humanity. She never thought about just how much blood could run.

Not once she imagined her job as an easy one, not even in the beginning. It would be hard, dark, bloody and dirty. But this all went a long time ago over her imagination.

"Ready?" she asks. Somehow she became the leader. Not only of their little group but of all this. She sometimes thinks that the burden will one day crush her and suffocate her. But it had been nothing against the things her friend experienced. And for him, she and all of them would carry on.

She always likes to imagine, that one day, maybe he could join them. Giving them a purpose again aside from the aim to tear apart an organization. But deep down she knows that no matter how effective they were and how good their connections are, Shinichi would never think about joining them. Just explain it to him, she tells herself in such moments when she thinks about her best friend looking at her in disgust. He will understand.

The other two just nod and they make their way towards their destination.

There's a room in this building. A dark room with two chairs and a desk. With a one-way mirror. And inside this room is a monster. And Ran can't wait until his blood will paint the walls.

Maybe, she muses, she lost something deep inside her to feel such emotions in such a grotesque context. Or maybe they all simply broke apart since that night. Whatever it is that allows her to be this way, that part will feel very, very good after this.

The door is simply, almost blending with the wall. Nothing is special about it.

Ran takes a deep breath.

"Give it to me," she commands Ai. Once the girl would have hesitated. Moral conflicts. A sense of overprotection. Maybe she still thinks about her own, silent promise to Shinichi, the one where she swore that the dark wouldn't touch any of them. Another broken thing added to a long list. Alongside, I'm going to protect you and everything will be fine.

Ai hands her the suitcase.

"You look like a lawyer," she jokes. Ran nods.

"And now I'm going to have a nice conversation with my client." Her voice isn't her own for a moment. Darker and more primal. Her blood rushes through her body and her ears are drumming. There's excitement in her body.

Just a few seconds, then she's cold and efficient again.

Her hand opens the door and she takes a moment to take everything in. She offers the other a moment to take everything in. Then she looks one last time at her friends, partners in crime and comrades.

Satisfaction is painted on their faces.

And Ran closes the door behind her.

The room is poorly lighted. The only lamp is small and sometimes turns off without reason. Ran never looked for the problem with the electric. It suited the atmosphere she decided, no need to change that in the near future.

The silence stretches through the room. They look each other over, the grey-haired man and the brown-haired woman.

After a while the man, former assassin and sniper, known under the code name Gin, smiles.

Ran never met the other in person. Close contact yes, even eye contact once, but being inside a room with the other was another thing. His smile is more of a movement of the mouth on its own than anything else. It seems like this man never knew how to smile because his teeth are showing too much and his face just simply looks like a grimace.

His long hair, an unnatural grey, gleams in the light. It reminds Ran of the barrel of a gun.

"You look …" Gin runs his eyes over her body and Ran thinks about Ai, about her experience, and shots a look at the mirror. She made them watch, of course, it had been their choice but Ran didn't think any of them would have refused. But not for this. Not for this man to look at her like this.

This is her game. For once she knows exactly how this will play out.

She takes in other details. The handcuffs. The table between them. The way his arms had been forced behind his back in a way that looks painful.

She sits down on the other chair, laying the suitcase in front of her.

"Is it true that you don't remember the faces of your victims?" she asks, passing over his suggestive comment.

"You know," he draws out, "after a couple it gets hard to distinguish between all of them. So petty things like names, hair colour, and eye colour. They are not important."

Ran thinks about a special victim. Blue eyes, black hair. He doesn't remember Shinichi. Maybe he remembers the warehouse, what he has done to the body, but the face will hold no meaning to him.

"You know who I am, don't you?" Her fingers touch the locks of the suitcase. The metal is cool and calming. It's going to get her through this. She despises the other person, she never realised how much until they finally managed to meet face to face. And the hatred feels wonderful in her veins.

"You're the boss of this thing," the way he titles her organization, her home, her people, makes Ran's blood boil. "Or are you just the secretary?"

Normally she would have broken a nose for such a comment. Instead, she opens the suitcase, slowly and expertly. She reaches out for a very special thing inside and holds it up for the other to see.

"You know, I'm more of a gofer. And I believe that I'm actually good at all the things I do." The scalpel catches the light and gleams. It's brighter than the silver hair and somehow this reassures Ran. She's the winner.

Gin lifts a brow in an unimpressed manner.

"Torturing? How boring, I dared to imagine something more creative of you and your dogs." He rolls his head. "Go one, enjoy yourself girl. Try your worst."

She smiles a cold smile that made enough people piss their pants to prove its effect on normal human beings. Let's look what she can do with this psychopath.

"This is not torturing Gin. This would imply that I want something from you." Her voice is like ice, sharp and cold. She enjoys it. "No, this is something way simpler. This is just about pain. Pain and revenge."

She circles the chair and the table. Her shoes make harsh clicks on the ground.

The knife flickers in her hand in a way that Rei thought her.

"This is for Akai," she whispers sweetly while pressing the knife into flesh. "This is for putting a bullet in his head." The hand of the killer twitches a bit but no sound escapes him. His eyes are knives on their own but Ran knows that they will not haunt her nor hurt her.

Maybe he expects her to be soft, to be human, and to have a crack in her armour. But not today, not with him. He is searching for a myth. His hopes are built on the belief that she was still human. She wasn't, not in this room and not today.

"And this is for Jodie," she continues while twisting her knife. To be exact, it wasn't really Gin's fault that they lost Jodie. But it was the fault of the BO.

She goes one, whispering name after name into his ear while putting her marks on him. Sera, Heiji, Megure. Almost Takagi. Almost Chikage. Almost Kaito. Their victory had been paid a heavy price and she will not allow one death to be forgotten. She will feed them to Gin, will burn them into his brain. These are the ones that he will not forget. They would be the one that would accompany him in this room.

"And this one," she says while standing in front of Gin, towering over him, "is for Shinichi." And then she makes him scream.

Kaito watches the scenario with a twisting feeling in his guts. He thinks about stopping Ran. It made no sense. They don't need information.

This is about pain. This is twisted.

He looks at Ai. The eyes of his friend are glued to the mirror. Her face is white. Her hands are trembling.

"This is it Kaito," she whispers and he puts an arm around her. He can feel the other presence, even through the glass. He can't even imagine what it had to be like dealing with something like that for years like his friend did. "Now we finally lost ourselves."

Personally, he thinks he lost himself a long time ago. Maybe after the first bullet. Maybe after the first time, he aimed for a kill and not just a way to stop his enemy.

"I think we are just broken beyond repair. He will never forgive us."

Kaito thinks about a room in this building, so different from this one. One that is high up, where huge windows show the sky and the sun and at night the stars and the moon.

There's a bed inside this room. And a person inside this bed. There's peace in this room and good. All their reasons lie in this room.

Wasn't it worth it, to defend this contrast between these two rooms?

"I think he will understand," Kaito lies. "We will be able to explain it to him and he will understand it."

But the only thing he can imagine is Shinichi walking away from them.

Ai looks at Gin, the way her worst nightmare gets torn apart by her friend. She always had been under the impression that Gin was unstoppable. She thinks about Shinichi, about his face, still peaceful and unaware of the war that is around him.

She tightens her hand, wrapping the other arm around Kaito. They watch, close as lovers but far apart.

They are broken, she thinks. All of them. Broken. Unfixable. But maybe one day at least the world will be able to build something from the ruins.

She turns away.

"Let's go," she says and her voice isn't her own anymore. This isn't what she imagined all those years ago.

No killing had once been the rule of her friend. But she knows that he long ago depraved this rule.

Maybe they are all going crazy down here, she thinks while stepping into the other room. Kaito follows her.

Gin instantly glues her eyes on her and Ai suppresses the urge to run. This is what she wants, she tells herself.

Ran doesn't even look at her. This is no surprise to her. Instead, she makes a vague movement of the hand towards the suitcase. Ai breaths in deeply before reaching inside the suitcase.

"Sherry," Gin whispers but Ai isn't afraid of him. He can look at her all he wants. She's stronger than that. And she isn't Sherry.

"It's Haibara Ai actually!"

The metal is familiar. Maybe she can pretend that this is just an experiment inside her lab. But no, she furiously shakes off this thought, there will be no more running away.

They are standing in front of the killer of their friend, in one line.

They are no longer human. Not in this room, not this day.

They started this together, it's only natural that they end it together as well.


End file.
